Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has revealed that the Government, through the office of the Data Protection Commissioner, has contacted TikTok regarding security issues raised by MPs and a petitioner regarding the use of the social media platform.
The government has asked TikTok management to ascertain the level of compliance to ensure the privacy of individuals is respected.
Besides privacy, the government asked TikTok to elaborate on the effectiveness of age verification and content filtering.
Further, the government asked the social media platform to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act, 2019.
This followed a petition filed by Bob Ndolo seeking to ban the use of TikTok in Kenya.
Responding to concerns raised by the petitioner, Kindiki pointed out that criminal elements have used the TikTok platform to spread malicious propaganda, steal popular accounts through identity theft and impersonation, defraud users through fake forex trade and job recruitment, distribution of sexual content and exposure of minors to inappropriate content.
“The traditional way of communication across the world has been disrupted and social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, and Signal have been embraced by citizens as a medium of communicating, sharing information, planning events, promotion of brands and marketing tools for various products,” Kindiki noted.
