TikTok | Pakistan

Popular video-sharing platform Tiktok removed more than 25 million videos over community guidelines violations in Pakistan, in the second quarter of 2025 (April-June), its Community Guidelines Enforcement Report said on Monday. Tiktok has repeatedly been banned in the country by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) over complaints about indecent and immoral content. The first such ban came in October 2020, but was lifted 10 days later, after the company assured the telecom regulator that it would block accounts “spreading obscenity.” According to a press release, the popular video-sharing platform said, “TikTok removed a total of 25,448,992 videos in Pakistan for Community Guidelines violations.” “TikTok proactively removed 99.7 per cent of the videos, with 96.2pc of these videos removed within 24 hours,” added the platform. “The report, which covers data from April to June 2025, details the proactive steps TikTok has taken to identify and remove content that violates its Community Guidelines, ensur...

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday declaring that his plan to sell Chinese-owned TikTok’s US operations to US and global investors will address the national security requirements in a 2024 law. The new US company will be valued at around $14 billion, Vice President JD Vance said, putting a price tag on the popular short video app far below some analyst estimates. Trump on Thursday delayed until January 20 enforcement of the law that bans the app unless its Chinese owners sell it amid efforts to extract TikTok’s US assets from the global platform, line up American and other investors, and win approval from the Chinese government. The publication of the executive order shows Trump is making progress on the sale of TikTok’s US assets, but numerous details need to be fleshed out, including how the US entity would use TikTok’s most important asset, its recommendation algorithm. “There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that w...

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is preparing to impose taxes on TikTok content creators, a parliamentary committee was informed on Wednesday during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue at Parliament House. Senator Faisal Vawda claimed that the FBR is finalising a plan to tax income earned by TikTokers, suggesting that the largest share of recoverable taxes would come from Punjab. He urged the tax authority to begin enforcement there. The committee, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, also reviewed the Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI) and the government’s remittance subsidy policy. Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan informed members that the subsidy, originally introduced in 2020 at 20 Saudi riyals per transaction, was raised to 30 in 2024 but has since been reduced back to 20 riyals. Senators question remittance subsidies benefiting banks Vawda criticised the move and described the policy as a “scandal”, alleging that commercial banks were benefiti...

Tech giant Oracle is set to provide security for a US version of TikTok’s algorithm, the White House said on Monday, under a deal for the sale of the Chinese-owned app’s American operations. The proposal moves TikTok’s US operations into a new joint venture based in the United States, a senior White House official told reporters, adding that the entity would involve a “majority-American board of directors.” Oracle, in turn, is expected to serve as a security provider. The agreement provides that a copy of TikTok’s content recommendation algorithm be brought into the US joint venture system, the official said. “It’s going to be fully inspected and retrained by the security provider on US user data, and then it’s going to be operated by that US entity,” the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity. Washington has forcefully sought to take TikTok’s US operations from the hands of the Chinese parent company ByteDance over national security reasons. Under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, C...

A deal for the Chinese parent company of popular video-sharing app TikTok to sell its US operations would see the creation of a board dominated by Americans, the White House said on Saturday. “There will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News. She said a deal could be signed “in the coming days.” The United States has forcefully sought to take TikTok’s US operations out of the hands of Chinese parent company ByteDance for national security reasons. Under President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, the US Congress passed a law to force ByteDance to sell its US operations or face a ban on the app. US policymakers, including in Trump’s first term, have warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence on what they see on social media. But Trump turned to the platform, which is hugely popular with young Americans, to garner support during his ul...

United States President Donald Trump hailed on Friday what he called progress with Chinese President Xi Jinping, including on selling blockbuster app TikTok, and said he would visit the Asian power, which offered a more cautious assessment of their talks. The leaders of the world’s two largest economies spoke by telephone for the second time since the return to the White House of Trump, who has tried to keep a lid on tensions despite his once virulent criticism of China. Trump told reporters ahead of the call that he hoped it would finalise a deal to take out of Chinese hands TikTok, the social media platform hugely popular with young Americans that the Republican mogul has turned to himself to garner support. Neither side reported a final agreement but Trump said the call was “very productive”. “We made progress on many very important issues, including trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the war between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platfor...

The United States and China have reached a framework agreement to switch short-video app TikTok to US-controlled ownership, top US officials said on Monday, with President Donald Trump set to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the agreement after a meeting between senior US and Chinese officials in Madrid, but declined to give any of the commercial terms of the agreement. Bessent told reporters that further details would wait to be determined in a call on Friday between Trump and Xi. Trump said on Monday that trade talks with China had gone very well and hinted that a deal had been reached to resolve issues the US has over TikTok ownership. “The big trade meeting in Europe between the United States of America, and China, has gone very well! It will be concluding shortly,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “A deal was also reached on a certain company that young people in our Country very much wante...

United States and Chinese officials began talks in Madrid on Sunday on their strained trade ties, a looming divestiture deadline for Chinese short video app TikTok and Washington’s demands that its allies place tariffs on China over its purchases of Russian oil. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer arrived shortly before Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and China’s top trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, at the baroque Palacio de Santa Cruz, which houses Spain’s foreign ministry in the Spanish capital. The talks mark the fourth time in four months that the delegations have met in European cities to try to keep a fractured US-China trade relationship from collapsing under US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent arrives to meet Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, to continue discussions on trade, economic and national security issues, in Madrid, Spain on September 14. — Reuters The delegations last met in Stockholm in July, where the...

The Gilgit-Baltistan police chief on Monday banned the use of social media platform TikTok by personnel of the force for the purpose of maintaining “discipline”. A notification issued today from the office of the GB inspector general of police said: “In order to maintain discipline, uniformity and dignity of the force, it is hereby directed that no GB police officer/official shall use social media platform (TikTok).” It ordered all district police officers and unit heads to bring the direction to the notice of all personnel under their command, warning that any non-compliance would be “viewed seriously and cause disciplinary action”. In July, two constables from the Security Division Islamabad were suspended and facing an inquiry for allegedly violating the capital police’s social media policy by making and uploading TikTok videos in uniform. Sources had said that dozens of other lower-ranking officials had been warned and directed to remove their TikTok accounts to avoid further action. In March, the Punjab ...

Social media platform TikTok on Tuesday launched a new search guide designed to help users in Pakistan access authoritative and up-to-date information during the ongoing monsoon flood season, according to a press release issued by its public relations firm. With the onset of the monsoon season, which typically lasts from late June to September, different parts of the country witness heavy rainfall and a heightened risk of extreme weather events like flash floods and landslides, especially in its northern and western regions. “Now, users searching for flood-related updates on TikTok will now see a prominent banner urging them to verify information through credible sources,” the press release read. “This guide connects users directly with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), from where users in Pakistan can access verified information regarding natural disasters,” it added. The guide also connects users to TikTok’s Safety Centre resources and provides a direct link to TikTok’s Tragic Event Support...

The Rawalpindi Police on Wednesday said they arrested a man for allegedly killing his daughter for ‘honour’ over not deleting her account on social media platform TikTok. The first information report (FIR) of the case was registered at Rawat Police Station a day ago on the complaint of Head Constable Shahbaz Anjum Kayani under Section 302 (Punishment of qatl-i-amd), and Section 311 (Waiver or compounding of qisas) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Under Section 311, the state becomes the complainant, as this provision is non-compoundable, and the case must proceed to a logical conclusion. The punishment for ‘honour’ killings, under Sections 311 and 302, includes the death sentence or life imprisonment. The option for a 25-year sentence under Section 302C is not applicable when Section 311 is invoked. The FIR said the incident occurred at 11:30am a day ago in Dhok Chaudhrian, within the limits of the Rawat Police Station when Kayani received a tipoff from a source about the suspect asking his daughter to delete her ...

TikTok is building a new version of its app for users in the United States ahead the social media platform’s planned sale to a group of investors, The Information reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources. This comes as US President Donald Trump said on Friday he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal. He said the United States “pretty much” has a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app. TikTok has developed a plan to launch the new app in US app stores on September 5, the report said. Last month, Trump extended to September 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of TikTok. The report added that TikTok users will eventually have to download the new app to be able to continue using the service, although the existing app will work until March of next year, though the timeline could change. TikTok did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. A deal had been in the works earli...

US President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview aired on Sunday that he found a buyer for the TikTok social media app, which he described as a group of “very wealthy people” whose identities he will reveal in about two weeks. Trump made the remarks in an interview on Fox News programme ‘Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo’ and said that the deal he is developing would probably need China’s approval to move forward, predicting that Chinese President Xi Jinping would likely approve it. The US president earlier this month extended a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of TikTok to September 17, despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown without significant progress. A deal had been in the works this spring that would have spun off TikTok’s US operations into a new US-based firm — majority-owned and operated by US investors — but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods. “We have a b...

President Donald Trump announced Thursday he had given social media platform TikTok another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States. “I’ve just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025),” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, putting off the ban for the third time. A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s January inauguration. The Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media, has previously said he is fond of the video-sharing app. “I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May. “If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.” TikTok on Thursday welcomed Trump’s decision. “We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users,” said a s...

US President Donald Trump is widely expected to extend the Thursday deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the United States. It would be the third time Trump put off enforcing a federal law requiring its sale or ban, which was to take effect the day before his January inauguration. “I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May. “If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.” Trump said a group of purchasers is ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance “a lot of money” for the video-clip-sharing sensation’s US operations. Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app’s US business. The president is “just not motivated to do anything about TikTok,” said independent analyst Rob Enderle. “Unless they get on his bad side, TikTok is probably going to be in pretty good shape.” Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his pos...