After 10 days of banning TikTok from the country, Pakistani regulators have now reversed their decision on the matter. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority said that it will be lifting the ban on the Chinese short-video streaming app, allowing users in the country to use and download it once again.
The regulator said that it had decided to rescind the ban after its owner, ByteDance, had committed to improve its moderating process to remove unwanted content on its platform and adhere to local laws. TikTok was originally banned in the country Oct. 9 after authorities had received complaints that it had hosted "indecent" and "immoral" content.
"TikTok is being unlocked after assurance from management that they will block all accounts repeatedly involved in spreading obscenity and immorality," the telecommunications regulator said in a post on social media.
Pakistan is currently TikTok's 12th largest market with over 43 million downloads since it was made available in the country. In a separate statement, TikTok's Pakistan unit said that it was pleased that the Pakistani government had listened to their request. It added that it committed to making the platform a "safe environment" for all users in the country moving forward.
Pakistan previously enacted a new cybersecurity law in 2016, which gave regulators the power to block content deemed to be against Islam, the country's laws and its national security. According to human rights watchdog Freedom House, Pakistani authorities have so far managed to block close to 1 million websites under the new law.
Earlier in the year, Pakistan had moved to ban several dating mobile applications. Authorities removed Tinder, Skout, Grindr, SayHi and Tagged from circulation, claiming that they contained "immoral and indecent" content.
Outside of Pakistan, TikTok is facing different obstacles. In India, the app was banned alongside dozens of other Chinese apps after tensions between the country and China escalated following a deadly border clash. In the United States, the app was caught in the middle of the growing tech war, threatening its presence in one of its largest markets. Last month, a U.S. federal judge ruled in favor of TikTok, temporarily halting Trump's plan to ban the app from the country.
