PTA blocks five dating, live streaming apps in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked five dating and live streaming applications after sending notices to the respective administrations, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The apps include Tinder, Tagged, Skout, Grinder, SayHi that has been blocked by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) over live streaming of obscene content.

According to PTA spokesperson, the app administrations have been issued notices for suspending the dating service, as well as modifying its regulations in accordance with Pakistani laws.

Later, the apps were blocked over getting no response from their administrations.

Earlier on August 28, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had asked YouTube remove “indecent” content and “hate speech”.

In a statement issued on Twitter, the PTA had said it had asked the video-sharing platform “to immediately block vulgar, indecent, immoral, nude and hate speech content for viewing in Pakistan”.

The state-run regulatory body had said YouTube must ensure that “objectionable content” is immediately blocked and that it is not used for “disseminating such content”.

The PTA had further announced that the Google-owned service was “directed to put in place an effective content monitoring and moderation mechanism so that the unlawful material is detected/deleted and not accessible within Pakistan”.

Earlier, the Senate had been informed by the PTA chairman that a total of 830,000 websites had been blocked for containing pornographic content. He had told the committee, which met with PPP Senator Rubina Khalid in the chair in Islamabad, that as many as 2,364 websites carrying child pornographic content were blocked on the basis of information shared by Interpol.