Parliament receives petition to ban TikTok in Kenya
The Kenyan Parliament says it has received a petition to ban TikTok.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula said on August 15, 2023, his office had received a petition from one Bob Ndolo, an executive officer of the Briget Connect Consultancy, concerning the use of TikTok by Kenyans.
While TikTok, is a social media platform that allows users to create and share short videos, Ndolo lamented it is a threat to the cultural and religious beliefs in Kenya.
“The petitioner has decried that while it has gained popularity by the youth in Kenya, the content that is being shared is inappropriate and thus promoting violence, vulgar language, explicit sexual content, hate speech, and offensive behaviour which is a serious threat to the cultural and religious values in Kenya,” the petition read.
Mr Ndolo also alleged that TikTok had been involved in privacy scandals over the years citing a ruling in the USA.
He added that TikTok collects significant amount of data from its users including information about the device being used to access the platform, the location of its users, and their browsing history.
“The platform has in the past shared information about its users with the third party company without users’ consent,” he further claimed.
Ndolo cautioned that if the app is not banned in Kenya, TikTok’s addictive nature would lead to a decline in academic performance, and lead in mental health issues, depression, anxiety, and sleep deprivation among the youth.
“The petitioner wants the house to intervene, and take immediate action and safeguard Kenyans from TikTok’s negative effects.”
TikTok, allows users to create short videos which can range in duration from 3 seconds to 10 minutes.
It often features music in the background and can be sped up, slowed down, or edited with a filter.
They can also add their own sound on top of the background music.
In October 2020, TikTok surpassed 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide.
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