According to a document from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), X (formerly Twitter) had the lowest rate of blocking objectionable and unlawful content among major social media platforms.

In contrast, TikTok emerged as the platform with the highest compliance rate, blocking 107,003 out of 109,359 URLs, a compliance rate of 97.85%.

This positioned TikTok significantly ahead of other major platforms in adhering to the PTA’s requests to block content that was flagged as defamatory, immoral, anti-Islamic, anti-security and defense, sectarian, or in contempt of court.

According to a recent PTA report, covering the period from January 2021 to June 2024, there were significant disparities in how different social media platforms handled requests to block objectionable and unlawful content.

The data shows that X (formerly known as Twitter) had the lowest compliance rate, blocking only 59.70% of the 69,372 URLs processed by the PTA. In other words, only 41,414 out of the 69,372 URLs sent to X for blocking were actually blocked.

TikTok emerged as the platform with the highest compliance rate, blocking 107,003 out of 109,359 URLs, which translates to a remarkable compliance rate of 97.85%. This positioned TikTok significantly ahead of other major platforms in adhering to the PTA’s content-blocking requests. The content flagged by the PTA spanned various categories, including defamatory, immoral, anti-Islamic, anti-security and defense, sectarian, and contempt of court.

It also highlighted the compliance rates of other major social media platforms.

Facebook demonstrated a strong compliance rate, blocking 79,904 out of 94,141 URLs, achieving a compliance rate of 84.88%. Similarly, Instagram followed closely with a compliance rate of 85.60%, having blocked 18,260 out of 21,333 URLs. While not at the same level as TikTok, these figures indicate that Facebook and Instagram still showed considerable adherence to the PTA’s requests to remove objectionable content.

The report also revealed that YouTube and Likee had high compliance rates as well. YouTube blocked 36,351 out of 41,954 URLs, resulting in a compliance rate of 86.64%. Likee was close behind, blocking 5,530 out of 5,760 URLs, achieving a compliance rate of 96.01%. These numbers reflect the significant efforts made by these platforms in addressing the PTA’s concerns over various categories of objectionable content, including defamatory, immoral, anti-Islamic, anti-security and defense, sectarian, and contempt of court material.

The report also included information about the compliance rates of other social media platforms, such as Dailymotion and SnackVideo.

Dailymotion had a lower, but still notable, compliance rate of 71.88 percent. The platform blocked 23 out of the 32 URLs requested by the PTA for removal.

SnackVideo, on the other hand, had a higher compliance rate of 94.31 percent. The platform blocked 6,829 out of the 7,241 URLs that the PTA had flagged for containing objectionable content, such as material that was defamatory, immoral, anti-Islamic, anti-security and defense, sectarian, or in contempt of court.

While not at the same level as the top performers like TikTok and Facebook, these compliance rates for Dailymotion and SnackVideo still reflect a significant effort by these platforms to address the PTA’s content moderation requests.

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