TikTok Vows Stringent Content Moderation in Kenya Amidst Calls for Ban

April 10, 2024

By Samuel Ouma

The video-sharing app TikTok has committed to liaising with the Kenyan government to ensure the safety of the application users.

This follows calls to ban the Chinese video-sharing platform in the country due to its harmful content.

In his petition to the National Assembly in 2023, Bridge Connection Consulting Group CEO Ben Ndolo alleged the platform poses a significant threat to Kenya's cultural and religious values as it promotes violence, explicit sexual content, hate speech, vulgar language, and offensive behaviour.

In rejoinder, National Assembly speaker Moses Wetang’ula invited the application's management to explain the raised allegations to the National Assembly’s Public Partitions Committee.

Mr. Fortune Mgwili Sibanda, the Public Policy and Government Relations Director of ByteDance, the social media platform's parent company, presented a detailed overview to the Committee.

He emphasized the operational policies and measures implemented by the company to guarantee the safety of content on the app.

Mr. Sibanda informed the Committee that 95 per cent of the app's content is filtered by machine-assisted programs known as Artificial Intelligence (AI). He explained that the AI is programmed using internationally recognized policy standards.

The content is then reviewed by human moderators familiar with the respective countries' languages and cultural norms. Mr. Sibanda emphasized that these policies are influenced by local partners who help shape culturally acceptable content standards in different regions.

“In the last year, we have taken down over 296,000 videos from Kenya alone. Around the globe 96.7 per cent of harmful content is taken down before it is reported, while 77.1 per cent of content is taken down before garnering any views,” stated Mr. Sibanda.

“We will be the first to admit that, we are not perfect and that we are constantly investing in ways to ensure that the one percent of content that slips through the gaps is also stopped.”