The Pakistani government has banned TikTok, claiming that it has received a number of complaints against “immoral/indecent” content on the video-sharing app, a move that comes a few months after the platform received a “final warning” on the issue.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h3>



The ban was&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/PTAofficialpk/status/1314536530325762048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1314536532791963649%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.medianama.com%2F2020%2F10%2F223-tiktok-ban-pakistan%2F" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">issued</a>&nbsp;by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) which said in a press release that it had given TikTok “considerable time” to develop an “effective mechanism for proactive moderation of unlawful online content,” but the platform failed to do so.



The regulator, however, left the door open to review its decision if TikTok manages to create a “satisfactory mechanism” to moderate content.



While issuing TikTok a warning in July, Pakistan had&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/PTAofficialpk/status/1285287980370931712" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banned</a>&nbsp;a Chinese-owned live-streaming app Bigo for similar reasons.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">CHIEF CRITIC</h3>



Pakistan-based digital and women&#8217;s rights lawyer Nighat Dad told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;that the ban is being seen as unconstitutional and a violation of people’s fundamental rights. “The lack of transparency around the PTA’s decision means that one authority can choose to ban anything by calling it immoral,” she said. “TikTok offered breathing space for people who consider themselves as minorities in the country, and the platform enabled them to enjoy the freedom that they did not find in public spaces.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h3>



43 million. That’s the total number of times the TikTok app has been downloaded in Pakistan, according to data shared by mobile app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Prior to the ban Pakistan was TikTok’s 12th largest market.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h3>



In June, Pakistan’s neighbor India had&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/06/29/india-bans-tiktok-58-other-chinese-apps-citing-security-concerns/#3054d1157e60">banned</a>&nbsp;the Chinese-owned video-sharing app claiming that it was stealing users’ personal data. India’s Ministry of Electronics &amp; IT said it had taken the decision after receiving “many complaints” of TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have locations outside India.” The video-sharing platform has also been threatened with a ban in the U.S. by the Trump administration over a similar allegation of sharing user data with the Chinese government, something TikTok vehemently denies.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h3>



Internet platforms have regularly run afoul of Pakistan’s laws on morality and objectionable content. YouTube, which has borne the brunt of such actions so far, was banned for more than three years between September 2012 and January 2016. The video-sharing platform was only&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-youtube-idUSKCN0UW1ER" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reinstated</a>&nbsp;after it launched a local version that allows the government to demand the removal of material it considers offensive. In August this year, the Pakistani telecom regulator&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medianama.com/2020/08/223-pakistan-youtube-objetionable-videos/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">asked</a>&nbsp;YouTube to “immediately block vulgar, indecent, immoral, nude and hate speech content” in the country. In September, the country had&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/PTAofficialpk/status/1300778356288425984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1300778356288425984%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.medianama.com%2F2020%2F09%2F223-pakistan-bans-tinder-grindr%2F" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banned</a>&nbsp;dating apps Tinder and Grindr calling them “immoral or indecent.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h4>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2020/06/29/india-bans-tiktok-58-other-chinese-apps-citing-security-concerns/#3054d1157e60">India Bans TikTok, 58 Other Chinese Apps, Citing Security Concerns</a> (Forbes)



-By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration the TikTok logo seen displayed on

Pakistan Bans TikTok For Allowing ‘Immoral/Indecent’ Content

As a young girl born and raised in Pakistan, Hina Kassam always knew what she wanted in life – to start her own business, be her own boss, and be successful. Very successful. And she endeavored for that very early in life.
“I always wanted to lead rather than be led,” says Kassam.
At the age of 19, she sold double-glazed glass to a window company, and thereafter sought every opportunity to satiate her entrepreneurial energy.
Kassam has been involved in forex trading since the beginning of her career, working for investment banks. Today, she has worked with diversified businesses across three continents including Europe, Asia and Africa and is well-versed with financial analysis in various industries. She is the COO of ACM Gold, a forex trading company she founded with her brother Irfan Pardesi in 2005 in Pakistan, before moving to Dubai. The company currently enjoys a R400 million ($36 million) turnover and the siblings have made South Africa their base.
“Over the past six months, our numbers have tripled and we see tremendous growth going forward, our staff is growing, and we are very confident about the whole African region,” says Kassam.
ACM Gold was awarded Africa’s Best Forex Broker 2013 by World Finance. The company is now eyeing the rest of Africa.
“Kenya is an interesting market because they love to trade on the phone, and they love the app and the technology. We are very much a technology company.” However, the company’s head office in Johannesburg isn’t moving anytime soon.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29602 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-050-051-Hina-Kassam-001-191x300.jpg" alt="" width="191" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-050-051-Hina-Kassam-001-191x300.jpg 191w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-050-051-Hina-Kassam-001-300x470.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-050-051-Hina-Kassam-001-600x941.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-050-051-Hina-Kassam-001.jpg 653w" sizes="(max-width: 191px) 100vw, 191px" />
“It’s the financial hub for the whole of Africa, people want to come here. Everybody looks to Johannesburg as their capital,” says Kassam.
She also understands the effects a great team can have on the success of a company, so she constantly strives to seek and develop new leaders.
And like most businesswomen with a love for beautiful things, Kassam’s passion for trading, mining stocks and leadership is complemented by her love for jewelry, and this too she has managed to turn to her advantage.
Her sparkling track-record has also included starting her own business selling fashion products in the United Kingdom as well as exporting these products to other parts of Europe.
The Power Dresser
The single mother of two never leaves home without make-up. Her personal style oozes confidence.
“You need to wear high heels if you want people to listen to you, if you want people to respect you. You don’t need to be loud and to shout; you need to dress well,” says Kassam.
Loyal to the Chanel and Louis Vuitton brands, Kassam describes her style as “powerful”. Her ultimate power kit at work is “a well-fitting blazer with wedges or high heels”.
And where does she indulge her sartorial senses? Her favorite shopping destination for the latest fashion finds is London, where she has lived the longest. She shuttles between Dubai and Johannesburg, but her line-up of labels in the closet of her Johannesburg home is a reflection of her achievements. For every big contract, new office or business, she adds a new Gucci, Prada or Louis Vuitton bag to her copious collection.
Kassam’s current obsession is lace but no matter the season, you will never catch her without jewelry. Her latest splurge is a R100, 000 ($9,000) Chopard watch. An apt self-gift for a person who has clearly made the most of her time.

FWA-2014-Oct-Nov-050-051-Hina-Kassam-001

Digging Her Heels In

The night Private Johan Botha died was actually meant to be his last on active service in Afghanistan’s turbulent Helmand province. His battalion, A (Grenadier) Company, was making its way out of the province on orders to push Taliban insurgent forces towards Pakistan. In the morning, another unit, the Grenadier Guards, would take over, allowing Botha and his company to head north to Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand, where they would catch the next flight home.
But a midnight ambush changed all that. It was like World War One; A Company was dug into a trench, and a few meters away, on the other side of no man’s land, was the Taliban.
In the darkness, machine gun fire shattered the silence as Taliban fighters launched their attack firing rocket-propelled grenades. The bursts of sand and smoke blinded and trapped the British. Seven men bore the brunt. Botha was one of them. He was wounded but no one could find him. His last words came across another soldier’s radio. He was shouting through the chaos in his heavy Afrikaans accent: “Boss, please don’t leave me.”
Botha was 25 and left a wife and young daughter.
Botha, of the Mercian Regiment (Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters), was a South African, one of thousands of Africans fighting for the British. He enlisted in Pretoria, as a Commonwealth soldier, in 2005; his tour of duty in Helmand was his first and he carried it out while a South African citizen.
British soldiers from Africa are not new. Infantrymen like Botha have been fighting under the Union Flag for hundreds of years. The two World Wars saw British dominions, like South Africa and Canada, raising their own armies, under British command, fully integrated into the British fighting forces. In World War One, more than 74,000 South Africans fought for the Queen and someone else&#8217;s country.
They are fewer today; about 660 British soldiers are South African – among the African majority of 6,400 Commonwealth fighters, according to Ministry of Defence (MOD) figures. African soldiers from Swaziland to Kenya have taken the Queen’s shilling with large enlistments from Ghana, Gambia and Zimbabwe.
In July last year, the British government suspended direct recruitment from the Commonwealth as part of a bid to cut the Armed Forces by a fifth. That year, it axed more than 5,000 soldiers from the ranks.
Yet, this year, young African men are still knocking at the gates of the British Defence Attache in Pretoria. They are trying to follow in the footsteps of men like Kieran Burke, a South African who joined the colors in 2005 and served with Botha. He says it was a career move.
“I wanted to eventually, once I got military experience, join the UN.”
Burke insists most Africans join for more than a red passport.
“With young guys coming in from Africa, it was a means to an end.”
The men he served with, from the continent, just wanted to be professional soldiers, he says. The British Army was organized, well-equipped and moneyed.
“The South Africans, Ghanaians and Fijians were the cream of the crop [and] we [lose] these guys to a foreign army. In some ways, it’s misplaced,” he says.
Burke tried to join the South African army. He had a Humanities degree but the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) wouldn’t let him enlist.
“I was informed by my own army [that] I was too old, I was 24,” he says.
So, he enlisted with the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire regiment instead and did six months of basic training. He excelled as a private and was in line to train as an officer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. But when he was asked to wait, in his rank, for two and half years he felt it was time to leave. He wanted to go into combat as a lieutenant, not a private.
After three months with a regiment, soldiers have to decide whether to leave or to stay. After this window, a four-year contract is signed and leaving the British Army is not an option.
“It was very difficult to get out,” remembers Burke.
But he talked his way out and is now a journalist in South Africa.
Despite his clean escape, Burke and other South Africans who have served, or are serving, in foreign armies may be skirting mercenary law back home. A piece of legislation known as the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act (FMA), passed in 1998, prohibits any South African citizen from engaging in ‘mercenary activity’ both within and outside the Republic. This means South Africans offering services as direct combatants in an international conflict for pay are committing an offense.
There is a way around this. The law can be subverted by placing a request for exemption with the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), based at the Department of Defence. But Burke says this was not considered by him or his countrymen who joined the British Army.
“There was no notion that you had to let the South African government know that you were in the British Army. If there was an issue, I was not aware of it,” he says.
Foreign fighters are a huge threat to South Africa’s international interests and obligations. Part of the reason the 1998 Act was drafted was because South Africa had been implicated in major, often scandalous, diplomatic embarrassments with its citizens aiding the overthrow of governments or selling arms to rebel groups across Africa.
The first FMA conviction was Richard Rouget – popularly known as Colonel Sanders – in 2005. He pled guilty to assisting the government of Ivory Coast suppress dissidents three years earlier. Rouget wasn’t born South African; he was a French military veteran who earned his citizenship through naturalization. He admitted to supplying the Ivorian government with military equipment, training and a contingent of South African pilots. The State proved that Rouget and his men were also active combatants during the Ivory Coast conflict. The men were paid €6,000 ($7,500) monthly. In addition, Rouget was paid €340,000 ($430,000) by the Ivorian authorities for military equipment.
Rouget was found guilty and slapped with a R100,000 ($9,000) fine and a suspended sentence of five years. He made an appeal for leniency and was granted a reprieve of R25,000 ($2,200) on his fine. The same year, Mark Thatcher was sentenced, under the same legislation, for his part in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. He walked away with a R3 million ($270,000) fine and a four-year suspended sentence.
Since the FMA became law in South Africa, only a handful of cases have gone to trial. However, it does raise concerns of the legitimacy of soldiers like Botha and Burke doing battle for another nation and fighting wars as proxies.
In many ways, the story of the African foreign legion, stripped bare, is the story of the African migrant, with stars and stripes on.

Tag: Pakistan

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Pakistan Bans TikTok For Allowing ‘Immoral/Indecent’ Content

Digging Her Heels In

Going To War For Money And A Passport