Pakistan blocked its access to Tinder and several other dating applications, amid the country’s strive to shun indecency.
The movement aims to keep immoral as well as indecent content under control.
Meanwhile, the shocking ban comes just days after Pakistan Telecommunication Authority or PTA threatened to shut down YouTube. And the reasons were quite similar to those mentioned above.
Moreover, the PTA says that it is also trying it’s level best to bar all users from gaining access to applications like Tinder, Grindr, SayHi, Skout, and even Tagged.point 259 |
All of these popular social media applications failed to provide moderate content in considerable limits.point 91 | And hence, they went above and beyond Pakistan’s accordance laws.point 153 | 1
At the same time, the PTA explained how the ban addresses all sorts of negative impacts relating to the immoral and indecent content provided.
The director for the digital rights groups in Pakistan, Shahzad Ahmad, slammed PTA’s decision, terming it as ‘moral policing.point 233 |
’ Furthermore, he chose to publicly comment on how adults had the freedom to be on dating apps, and it wasn’t the state’s responsibility to interfere in the matter.point 154 | Whether they choose to indulge in it or not, that’s not our problem, he explained.point 228 | 1
At the same time, he went on to term it as a rather ‘ridiculous move.’ People can easily find ways to circumvent such incidents, he claimed. When asked for comments on the entire incident, Tinder refused to issue any statements on the matter.
PTA also revealed that if the social networking applications chose to obey the law by limiting or restricting their indecency, they could easily apply for a lift in the ban. And that means working hard toward a common goal or objective of providing meaningful engagement.
On the other hand, the regulators didn’t specify exactly what they meant by the term engagement. They just mentioned how the applications failed to obey the laws. These were set up by the PTA, within a fixed deadline.
Just last week, the same regulatory body asked the famous YouTube platform to block all objectionable videos. This way, they couldn’t get accessed from the country. They believe promoting such content could lead to plenty of negative effects.