President William Ruto has said that inappropriate or offensive content will be expunged from short-form video platform TikTok.
This comes after Ruto held a virtual meeting with the platform’s Chief executive Shou Zi Chew.
During the meeting, it was agreed that TikTok will work with the government of Kenya in reviewing and monitoring its content.
The move, Ruto said, will ensure that content on the platform adheres to agreed guidelines.
“This new development means that inappropriate or offensive content will be expunged from the platform,” he said.
TikTok CEO Zi Chew committed to ensuring that content is moderated to fit community standards.
He also agreed to set up a Kenyan office to coordinate its operations in the country and across the African continent.
“He pledged to hire more Kenyans to work for the platform,” a communication from State House said.
On Wednesday, Ruto announced that he would hold talks with the platforms CEO to see how they can have the content moderated and also monetised for Kenyan creators.
“I will speak to the global CEO of TikTok and we have moderation capacities on YouTube and X (former Twitter) so that we can agree on a mechanism to moderate content on their space,” he said.
This comes as a backdrop after Kenyans led by an activist Bob Ndolo petitioned parliament seeking it to consider banning the platform from Kenya over advocating for social decadence
Legislators Kimilili MP Didmus Baraza backed the petition demanding parliament to exercise their powers in ordering the global funny-content platform to ship in or ship out
However Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wa said it’s impossible for Kenya to outlaw the app since it’s an emerging technology using smartphones