Short-form video hosting service TikTok has committed to reviewing and moderating its content, days after a petition seeking to ban the service in Kenya was tabled in parliament.
At a meeting with President William Ruto on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew committed to ensuring that content is moderated to fit community standards.
Following the new development, inappropriate or offensive content will be expunged from the platform.
President William Ruto said the move will ensure that content on the platform adheres to agreed guidelines.
During the meeting, Chew also agreed to set up a Kenyan Office to coordinate its operations in the continent.
He pledged to hire more Kenyans to work for the platform.
According to a recent study by Reuters Institute, dependance on TikTok has grown in the last year, with much of the growth coming from younger groups.
Kenya ranks among top six countries in the world with the highest TikTok use. The country is ranked at number one in Africa. Peru is leading in adoption globally with 30 per cent of population using it for news while another 48 per cent uses it for any purpose.
Thailand ranks at number two with 30 per cent of users relying on the app for news while 51 per cent uses it for any purpose. Kenya comes at number three in the global ranking, 29 per cent of the app users rely on it for news while 54 per cent uses it for any purpose. Malaysia, South Africa and Philippines close the top six users at number five and six respectively.
The study ranks Denmark, Japan, and Germany as the lowest TikTok adopters globally.
Moses Wetangula, Speaker of Kenya’s National Assembly disclosed that the petition by Bob Ndolo seeking the TikTok ban in Kenya, cites explicit content and lack of privacy among other reasons.
“The content that is being shared on the platform is inappropriate thus promoting violence, explicit sexual content, hate speech, vulgar language, offensive behavior which is a serious threat to the cultural and religious values of Kenya,” said Wetangula in regard to the petition.
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