TikTok has become the world’s most downloaded app in 2020 as it surpassed Facebook Messenger, according to digital analytics company App Annie.
The Chinese video-sharing platform is the only app not owned by Facebook to be included in the world’s top five downloads.
This is the first time that a Chinese app took the top spot from the Facebook since the survey started in 2018.
Facebook’s flagship app as well as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger hold the remaining four spots in the top give downloads.
Last year, then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order to ban new downloads of the TikTok app in the US over security concerns.
The app has also been facing restrictions in Pakistan off and on due to sharing of immoral content on the platform by its users.
Last month, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, on the first day of Eidul-Adha, banned the popular video-sharing app for the fourth time under the Cybercrime Act, 2016.
PTA also shared a tweet on its official handle about the development. “In the light of relevant provisions of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, PTA has blocked access to TikTok App and website in the country,” the authority wrote.
“The action has been taken due to the continuous presence of inappropriate content on the platform and its failure to take such content down.”
The latest ban, which coincides with Eidul Adha celebrations, came nearly three weeks after the Sindh High Court revoked the ban on TikTok. On June 28, the court ordered the PTA to suspend the services of the video-sharing site on a citizen’s petition, which moved the court to remove the immoral and obscene content” on the Chinese-owned platform.
The video-sharing platform was first blocked in Pakistan last year in October, over its obscene and immoral content.
TikTok blocked in Pakistan for the fourth time over ‘failure to remove immoral content’
