The President of Kenya, William Ruto, has announced plans to meet TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Thursday after a ban petition over the moderation of content on the social media platform.
President Ruto made the statement while in a speech at Nakuru State Lodge where he played host to the winners of the just concluded music festival.
The Kenyan President affirmed that the discussions with CEO Shou will be centred on reducing negative content on TikTok and content monetisation.
“Tomorrow morning, I will be speaking to the global CEO of TikTok so that we can agree on a mechanism to moderate content on their space so that we can reduce the negative content and leverage on monetisation that will benefit a lot more people.” President Ruto said.
President Ruto also charged the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) to monetise the content of the music festivals, adding that monetising the content would help the country find the hosting of the music festival rather than borrowing.
This development comes days after the Kenya Parliament received a petition to ban TikTok.
In the petition, the MPs were asked to ban the use of TikTok, as it was contributing to the alienation of the cultural and religious morals in Kenya.
Speaker Moses Wetang’ula stated that petitioner Bob Ndolo, a private citizen, had written to parliament requesting that it intervene and take immediate action to protect Kenyans from the negative effects of TikTok.
“The petitioner has decried that the content shared on the social media platform is inappropriate and promotes violence, vulgar language, explicit sexual content, and hate speech, which is a serious threat to Kenya’s cultural and religious values,” the Speaker said, reading from a statement received from the petitioner.
A Member of Parliament representing Kikuyu Constituency, Hon. Anthony Kimani Ichung’wa, said the petition held legitimate concerns, but the call to ban the social media platform was a move against technology.
TikTok has been making the news for displaying explicit content mostly at night. The development has triggered great criticism online and backlash in Kenyan society, hence the ban petition.