Tweets shared here and here on Twitter, and a Facebook post claim that Kenya has banned TikTok and Telegram.
Background
A petition to ban TikTok in Kenya was presented to the National Assembly on August 16, 2023. The petitioner, Executive Officer of Bridget Connect Consultancy Bob Ndolo, cited the violent and sexually explicit content among the reasons for the petition saying that application is a threat to moral and religious values.
Somalia is the latest country to join the growing list of countries with some bans on TikTok. Both Telegram and TikTok were banned by the Somali government on August 20, 2023, with claims that terrorists use the apps to post their content.
Verification
Despite the active petition at the National Assembly to ban the app, TikTok is not banned in Kenya currently. Members of Parliament and President Ruto have instead called for regulation of TikTok. President Ruto said in a speech on August 23, 2023 that he would hold a call with TikTok’s Chief Executive Officer on August 24, 2023, on the social media giant’s content moderation.
“Like we have moderation capacities of the other platforms; YouTube and Twitter, tomorrow morning we are having that conversation with the global CEO of TikTok,” President William Ruto said.
Telegram is also available in Kenya as there are no media reports or official government statements of the app being banned.
In an email response to Piga Firimbi’s request for comment, the Communications Authority of Kenya said that neither Telegram nor TikTok have been banned in Kenya. ‘Neither have been banned, nor any other digital platform service,’ the authority clarified.
Verdict
Claims that TikTok and Telegram are banned in Kenya are FALSE.
This fact check was published by Piga Firimbi with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.
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