TikTok row turns deadly
In Pakistan, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces.
'The girl's father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,' a police spokesperson said yesterday.
According to a police report shared with AFP, investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday 'for honour'.
He was subsequently arrested.
The victim's family initially tried to 'portray the murder as a suicide' according to police in the city of Rawalpindi, where the attack happened, next to the capital Islamabad.
Last month, a 17-year-old girl and TikTok influencer with hundreds of thousands of online followers was killed at home by a man whose advances she had refused.
Influencer Sana Yousaf had racked up more than a million followers on social media accounts including TikTok, where she shared videos of her favourite cafes, skincare products, and traditional outfits.
TikTok is wildly popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels.
Pakistani women have found both audience and income on the app, which is rare in a country where fewer than a quarter of the women participate in the formal economy.
However, only 30% of women in Pakistan own a smartphone compared to twice as many men (58%), the largest gap in the world, according to the Mobile Gender Gap Report of 2025.
Pakistani telecommunications authorities have repeatedly blocked or threatened to block the app over what it calls 'immoral behaviour', amid backlash against LGBTQ and sexual content.
In southwestern Balochistan, where tribal law governs many rural areas, a man confessed to orchestrating the murder of his 14-year-old daughter earlier this year over TikTok videos that he said compromised her 'honour'. — AFP
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