TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew has met Kenya’s president and agreed the popular video-sharing app will monitor content in the East African nation.
The deal comes a week after Kenyan Lawmakers discussed a proposal to ban TikTok because of its explicit sexual content and clips promoting violence and hate speech.
During a virtual meeting with TikTok CEO, it was also agreed that TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, would set up an office in Kenya.
Kenyan President William Ruto said TikTok’s operations in the region would be co-ordinated from there.
The moderation agreement would be a step to ensuring TikTok’s content adhered to Kenyan guidelines and standards like other platforms such as YouTube and Twitter, now known as X, did.
The president said the government wanted to reduce the negative side of social media while enabling Kenya to benefit from money that can be made on various platforms.
The country generated between 300m Kenyan shillings ($2m, £1.6m) and 500m Kenyan shillings monthly from social media, he said – without specifying if these were figures for total earnings or tax revenue.
