A petition has been filed in the National Assembly calling on Members of Parliament to ban popular social media platform TikTok in Kenya.

In his petition, Bridget Connect Consultancy Executive Officer Bob Ndolo argues that TikTok is contributing to the erosion of the cultural and religious values of Kenyans.

Ndolo has appealed to MPs to ban TikTok use in Kenya claiming it exposes the young people in Kenya to explicit sexual content and collects information from users minus their consent.

He also argues that the app, which has gained popularity especially among the youth in Kenya, also promotes violence, hate speech, offensive behavior and vulgar language.

The petitioner argues that the Chinese app is not regulated by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) making it impossible to remove any published offensive content.

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He further cites grave privacy concerns and illegal collection of personal data of users and sharing them with third parties without their consent as raised in the US and in Europe.

National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wa, while contributing to the matter, proposed the regulation and not banning of TikTok saying it offers jobs to Kenyan youth.

“The petitioner should come to seek on how to regulate the usage of the app, age group and content uploaded for a certain age to watch. Outright banning would be killing careers of many young people who are earning a living through it,” said Ichung’wa.

Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa supported the ban of the popular app, which has seen many young people earn a living from content creation, saying it promoted sexual content.

“We cannot continue supporting TikTok while our young people are using the same platform to post pictures when they are naked. You can’t just be posting anything you want on social media. It must be regulated,” averred Barasa.

On her part, Nominated MP Irene Mayaka said banning TikTok was not the solution to the issues raised by Ndolo saying many can still access it via Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula has directed the petition to the Public Petitions Committee for consideration and it is expected to make a decision within 60 days.