A petition asking for the government of Kenya to ban the short-video platform TikTok has been rejected by the Kenyan parliament.
A prominent businessman, Bob Ndolo, the Executive Officer of Bridget Connect Consultancy, presented the petition to the parliament. The petition voiced concern over the fact that, despite the app’s growing popularity among young people in the country, the platform’s material is inappropriate.
The petitioner claims that TikTok is a significant factor in East Africa’s loss of morals and cultural erosion. The parliament, however, holds the view that technology cannot be fought.
Kimani Ichung’wa, the majority leader in the legislature, stated that because the app has given the majority of young people work, the legislature cannot impose a ban on it.
“The petitioner should come to seek out how to regulate the usage of the app, age group, and content uploaded for a certain age to watch; outright banning would be killing the careers of many young people who are earning a living through it. These apps are part of the government effort where young men and women can create content for use in TikTok and Snap Chat to earn a living,” he said.
He said that since the applications are a component of the government’s efforts to create jobs and that outlawing them would mean that many young people’s careers would be ended, the app cannot be banned.
