A tragic case of so-called ‘honour killing’ has rocked Pakistan after a father fatally shot his 16-year-old daughter for refusing to deactivate her TikTok account, police confirmed on Friday.
According to authorities in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, the girl had been urged by her father to remove her presence from the popular video-sharing platform. When she declined, he reportedly took her life.
“The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson told AFP.
The incident took place on Tuesday, and the suspect has since been taken into custody.
Initial attempts were made by the family to pass off the killing as a suicide, but investigators quickly uncovered the truth, police said.
The shocking murder comes amid growing scrutiny over TikTok’s influence in the conservative Muslim-majority nation, where women are frequently subjected to strict codes of public and online conduct enforced by family members.
Just last month, another teenage influencer, 17-year-old Sana Yousaf, was murdered at home after rejecting a man’s romantic overtures.
Yousaf had gained widespread popularity online, with over a million followers across her platforms, sharing videos about daily life, beauty routines, and cultural attire.
Though TikTok remains widely used across Pakistan, especially among users with limited literacy, its presence has not been without controversy.
Women in particular have used the platform to gain income and visibility, remarkable in a country where only about 24% of women are part of the formal workforce.
Despite its reach, gender inequality remains severe.
A 2025 Mobile Gender Gap Report noted that only 30% of Pakistani women own smartphones, compared to 58% of men, the largest digital gender divide globally.
Authorities have frequently clamped down on TikTok, accusing it of promoting “immoral behaviour” and LGBTQ content, especially in tribal regions like Balochistan, where traditional customs hold sway.
In one earlier case this year, a man confessed to orchestrating his 14-year-old daughter’s murder over what he described as dishonourable videos on the app.