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Thursday, August 24, 2023 –Tik Tok content in the country will now be regulated following a successful meeting between President William Ruto and founder-cum-Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew.
Ruto, as he had promised to meet the CEO on Wednesday, held an hour long virtual meeting with the millionaire tech company owner on Thursday August 24 and agreed on the content delivery standards.
Kenya will work with the short-form video hosting service TikTok in reviewing and monitoring its content to ensure that it adheres to the agreed community guidelines and standards. It is our commitment that we bring up our children in the right environment,” Ruto said in a statement today.
This agreement being a follow up after the head of State, yesterday, promised to reach out to Tik Tik company after concerns were raised on the over-usage of the social platform in the country.
The move to tame carelessness on Tik Tok will ensure that only safe content is uploaded for consumption, locally.
Calls to shut down the platform had increased after it emerged that youthful Kenyans were using it to spread Parental Guidance PG content as well as security threatening videos without anybody questioning them.
Sports and culture Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba and his ICT counterpart Eliud Owalo had told various media houses that it was not possible to cut short the platform since it had become a new beacon of economical hope for millions jobless youth in the country.
“I May find it hard to ban Tik Tok,” Namwamba told parliamentarians on Wednesday during his appearance before the Speaker.
On Thursday, CS Owalo said it will be wrong for anyone to close the social media platform in the country but, instead, advised that its content will, henceforth, be monitored and sieved properly.
“We are not banning TikTok but we have to find a way to manage unpalatable content on the platform,” he stated.
He added that TikTok is a great platform when the company exercises self-regulation; pointing out that the only problem with the site is that it crosses the redline without anyone being held responsible.
Both Facebook and Twitter have strict community standards and, therefore, regularly bans or suspends accounts that violate policies.
A correct case at hand is the period when former American head of State Donald Trump was banned by almost every giant social media platform including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube most of which are yet top restore him.
Tik Tok owner, today, agreed to set up a regional branch in Nairobi Kenya to coordinate its operations around Africa.
