A cross section of Kenyans have called not to ban social media platform Tiktok following a petition tabled in parliament.
Those who spoke to Capital FM News Wednesday argued that the government should instead put in a place a regulatory framework to govern the platform especially on explicit content.
They further observed that the social media platform has for a long time been a source of livelihoods for most people devoid of age differences.
“Let them put rules to govern Tiktok. That’s the way to go. This app helps a lot of people earn a living,” Jackline Mwende stated.
They argued that Tiktok is their only refuge after failing to get jobs from what they say is a saturated market.
“The government should give us jobs if they want to ban Tiktok. We don’t have other jobs to do. Tiktok is the only job,” George Ogutu said.
Already there seems to be a difference in opinions in parliament as legislators pull from different directions.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale says that parents should instead deny their children access to mobile gadgets as a way of mitigating them from getting their eyes on the obscene content ion Tiktok.
“Kenya does not have its own unique locus on the internet, which parliamentary legislation can ring fence and lock. If you don’t like Tiktok, deny your kids access to a smartphone or computer, “posted Khalwale on his X app account.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula on Tuesday acknowledged receipt of the petition from petitioner Bob Ndolo, an executive officer of the Briget Connect Consultancy which cited explicit content and lack of privacy among others.
“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,” Wetangula said, quoting the petition.
The petitioner, Wetangula said, avers that in Kenya, the internet application is not regulated by the Communications Authority of Kenya leading to the failure to remove or block content that is offensive