Peshawar (Pakistan) (AFP)
Pakistan on Thursday lifted for the second time the ban in force on the video-sharing app TikTok, which had been banned for distributing "immoral and unethical" content.
The authorities' decision was taken after a new commitment made by the application to take measures to moderate this type of content.
"The app has promised us to filter and moderate the content," Jahanzeb Mehsud, a lawyer with the Pakistan Telecommunications agency, told AFP.
TikTok welcomed this decision.
A court in the northwestern city of Peshawar last month ordered telecommunications regulators to ban the app for showing videos deemed contrary to the country's extremely conservative values.
The Chinese app - very popular among young Pakistanis, especially in rural areas - had already agreed to moderate content after a first and brief ban in October.
One of Prime Minister Imran Khan's advisers accused the app of promoting the "exploitation, objectification and sexualization" of young girls.
Free speech advocates have long criticized rampant censorship and control by authorities of the internet, online media and print newspapers.
Regulators last year also asked YouTube to immediately make any video deemed "unwanted" inaccessible in Pakistan, a request criticized by rights defenders.
© 2021 AFP