According to Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, TikTok, a video-sharing app, has been the most downloaded social media app in Pakistan this year. He told a media briefing on digital media in Islamabad that the app is used by more than 20 million Pakistanis, with the majority of them earning money from it.
TikTok has been banned four times in Pakistan.
- First ban: October 9, 2020
- Second ban: March 11, 2021
- Third ban: June 28, 2021
- Fourth ban: July 21, 2021
TikTok, a video-sharing software, was the most downloaded social media app in Pakistan this year, according to Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
He said the app is used by more than 20 million Pakistanis, with the bulk of them making money from it, at a media briefing on digital media in Islamabad.
In Pakistan, TikTok has been banned four times.
Regulation of harmful content
Chaudhry emphasised the importance of regulating damaging social media information.
“Regulations to combat and ban hate speech, sectarianism, and hate news on digital media applications have been demanded by the public.”
A person might, for example, film a video of a group of girls walking to school and share it on social media. This stuff is worthless for someone who is not in the United States. However, in Pakistan, this might result in parents dropping their daughters out of school or worse, according to the minister.
“As digital media takes over Pakistan’s media landscape, we must ensure that material is monitored in order to protect every citizen,” he added.
Why is digital media the future?
“I advised the finance minister in 2018 that digital media advertising is the way of the future. According to our analysis, the digital media advertising business is worth over Rs25 billion today,” Chaudhry said.
The advertising market in Pakistan is worth Rs7 billion on Google and Facebook alone. Statistics on media usage in Pakistan were given by the minister.
- There are 114 satellite channels in the country.
- Pakistan has 258 FM radio channels of which 196 are commercial.
- Twelve internet TV licenses have been issued this year.
- Pakistan has over 1,600 newspapers. Eight hundred of these are fake. The government is tracking down on them and reducing advertisements in fake newspapers.
- There are over 180 million mobile connections in the country.
- Over 98 million Pakistanis are 3G subscribers.
- Pakistan has 100 million internet broadband subscribers.
- There are 60.5 million people on WhatsApp, 50 million on YouTube, 30 million on Facebook, and 50 million on other social media applications such as LinkedIn and Twitter.
