Fact-check: TikTok Live has not been launched in Pakistan, so claims of a ban are misleading

Multiple online users in Pakistan are claiming that TikTok Live, the platform’s live streaming feature, has been permanently banned in the country due to the spread of obscene content through it.

The claim is misleading. TikTok Live was never launched in Pakistan.

Claim

On September 11, a social media account shared a post in Urdu on Facebook that read: “Big news. A chapter of obscenity has been closed. Live TikTok has been banned in Pakistan forever.”

The post has received over 190,000 likes, more than 11,800 comments, and over 4,200 shares to date.

Similar claims were also shared on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.

Fact

TikTok Live has not been rolled out in Pakistan yet, which makes claims of it being officially banned inaccurate.

“The TikTok Live feature has never been launched in Pakistan,” a representative of TikTok told Geo Fact Check via email. “Any users appearing to access Live are doing so through workarounds.”

The representative added that the platform’s safety was TikTok’s top priority and it continues to remove violative content in line with its community guidelines.

Additionally, Anees Qureshi, an open source intelligence analyst at Bytes for All (B4A) in Islamabad, also told Geo Fact Check that TikTok Live is geo-restricted in Pakistan. However, he added that there are several ways users can access TikTok Live in the country, such as by using an international MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) like Giff Gaff, among other methods.

Verdict: TikTok Live has never been officially launched by TikTok in Pakistan, so it cannot have been banned or blocked.

Follow us on @GeoFactCheck on X (Twitter) and @geo_factcheck on Instagram. If our readers detect any errors, we encourage them to contact us at [email protected]