President William Ruto has revealed plans to hold talks with TiTok CEO even as pressure piles in the country to have the app banned.
Speaking in Nakuru, Ruto suggested that TikTok and other social media platforms can be moderated to ensure the content shared is moderate.
"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.
The President noted that by moderating the platforms, content that is negative can be minimised and more focus put on monetization.
Ruto also revealed that he had a chat with Facebook owners on monetization content.
"I had a conversation with Facebook and they have agreed to test with 25 of our creators to see how we can monetize content," he added.
This comes even as a Kenyan petitioner submitted a request to parliament to ban the TikTok platform.
He cited the promotion of explicit content and material that glorifies violence as the main reason he was seeking a ban.
Last week, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula confirmed to have received the petition.
Wetang'ula said his office received a petition from Bob Ndolo, an executive officer of the Briget Connect Consultancy.
After the petition was filed, a fierce debate ensued among legislators, with opinions divided between an outright ban and the implementation of more rigorous content moderation.
In the United States, social media service TikTok faced many bans due to national security concerns.
The social media platform has attracted critics even beyond the Kenya boarders
As of June 2023, federal employees and state employees in 34 (out of 50) states are prohibited from using the app on government devices.
In May 2023, Montana became the first state to ban TikTok on all personal devices, though this will not take effect until January 1, 2024, and is being challenged in court.
