Short video social platform, TikTok, has established its first safety advisory council in the sub-Saharan region.
The Safety Advisory Council is tasked with enhancing safety among users and content creators on the platform.
The council consists of Lillian Kariuki who is the Founder and Executive Director of Watoto Watch Network in Kenya, Prof Guy Berger of Rhodes University South Africa, Ghanaian content creator Dennis Coffie and Peter Cunliffe-Jones, University of Westminster Visiting Research Fellow from the United Kingdom.
Other are Senegalese Aisha Dabo who is the Co-founder and coordinator of AfricTivistes, Dr Akinola Olojo, Expert on preventing and countering violent extremism from Nigeria and · Ethiopia’s Prof Medhane Tadesse, Policy academic on peace and security issues and Berhan Taye, an independent researcher.
Speaking at the TikTok Safety Summit held in Nairobi,TikTok Director of Government Relations & Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda said the council is part of its safety network established in 2020 globally to tackle issues such as free speech, hate speech, misinformation, sexually suggestive content and child safety.
“The safety advisory council are external advisors,” said Mgwili-Sibanda.
“They are the ones who are going to help us not just to deal with the current challenges but to think ahead of the curve in terms of what could be the emerging issues,” he added.
The sub-Saharan advisory council is part of the nine councils TikTok has established worldwide.
“We will meet regularly on what the trends are and give us advice and one thing we have said to them is that we want candid advice,” stated Mgwili-Sibanda.
The tech giant says it has also deployed Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies which have improve safety on the platform.
Kenya is one of TikTok’s top markets in Africa with at least 10.6 million active users out of its more than one billion users worldwide.
The firm has also embarked on the #SaferTogether campaign which is designed to engage the community actively in promoting a basic understanding of the platform’s community guidelines and safety features.
The campaign has been conducted in 26 counties in Kenya and has reached 64,000 students, more than 467 parents, and 346 teachers.
