US Says Looming Tiktok Ban Won't Change Relations with China as Kenya Weighs In

FRIDAY APRIL 26 2024

A man shows a smartphone with the logo of social network TikTok. PHOTO | AFP

Summary

Kenya’s National Security Council to decide on whether or not to ban public officials from using TikTok.

A potential US ban against TikTok took a major step toward becoming reality last week as House lawmakers approved a bill targeting the app.

By LUKE ANAMI

A decision by the US government to ban the Chinese-owned Tiktok unless it is sold within a year, would not change the US relations with China, the US Secretary for Commerce Gina Raimondo said in Nairobi on Thursday.

In an exclusive interview with The East African, Kenya’s authoritative regional newspaper, Raimondo who visited China in August 2023, said the decision will also not impact negatively with her allies as countries such as Kenya are likely to follow suit.

“The USA does a lot of trade with China and we want to continue to do business with China,” said Raimondo who is on his first official visit to Africa since her swearing in in 2021 as the 40th U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

“But for technology like Artificial Intelligence and the connective Apps we have to be very careful. It’s about national security and protecting Americans. So we trade where we can but we have to protect our people.”

A potential US ban against TikTok took a major step toward becoming reality last week as House lawmakers approved a hot-button bill targeting the app as part of a wide-ranging aid package for Israel and Ukraine.

President Biden on Wednesday signed the bill into a law that would ban Chinese-owned TikTok unless it is sold within a year.

The bipartisan vote of 360-58 marks the latest defeat for TikTok in Washington, as the embattled social media company with 170 million US users fights for survival under its current ownership by ByteDance, its Chinese parent company.

It is the most serious threat yet to the video-streaming app's future in the U.S., intensifying America's tech war with China.

“The reason that Congress voted to ban Tiktok is because of our national security concerns.  Because everyone who uses Tiktok, Tiktok  collects a lot of data from you,” said Raimondo who visited China last year.

“They know what you like to look at, they know exactly where you are and all that data goes back to the Chinese government and may be the Chinese military state controlled. So that is the reason.”

The US decision comes at a time when Kenya too has joined a growing list of nations seeking to regulate TikTok in a bid to combat false information, fraud, and the distribution of sexual content.

Last week Kenya’s ICT Principal Secretary John Tanui told Parliament during the committee meeting that TikTok will be required to publish compliance reports every three months as part of the plan to address the negative effects linked to TikTok, instead of banning it from the country.

The government, under pressure to rein in TikTok, says that the social media platform will now be required to show content taken down and reasons for the same.

“To necessitate easy community reporting TikTok is required to share quarterly compliance reports with the Ministry clearly showing content taken down and reasons for the same,” said Tanui.

“I urge that we choose regulation instead of a complete ban and seek your support towards the proposed regulations.”

The move to compel TikTok publish the compliance reports every three months comes weeks after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki disclosed that government workers will be regulated on how they use the site.

Prof Kindiki said that the National Security Council will in the coming days decide on whether or not to ban public officials from using TikTok, in a bid to protect Kenya’s cyberspace from internal and external threats.

Kenya is among the leading countries in the use of TikTok in Africa and a decision by the US has already informed options of whether to ban or not.