Chinese social media app TikTok has inaugurated an eight-member safety advisory council for sub-Saharan Africa and they include Ghanaian content creator, Dennis Coffie.
The newly established council will partner with policymakers, academia, NGOs and community leaders to “foster a collaborative approach” to promoting safety and security practices on the TikTok platform.
“The newly launched sub-Saharan Africa safety advisory council will further this effort by bringing together local experts who will collaborate with TikTok to develop forward-looking policies and address regional safety concerns,” it said.
The advisory council has eight members:
- Prof Guy Berger, Rhodes University (South Africa)
- Dennis Coffie, content creator (Ghana)
- Peter Cunliffe-Jones, University of Westminster visiting research fellow (UK)
- Aisha Dabo, co-founder and coordinator of AfricTivistes (Senegal)
- Lillian Kariuki, founder and executive director of Watoto Watch Network (Kenya)
- Akinola Olojo, expert on preventing and countering violent extremism (Nigeria)
- Prof Medhane Tadesse, policy academic on peace and security issues (Ethiopia)
- Berhan Taye, independent researcher (Ethiopia)
“This group of leaders was chosen for their broad range of expertise and experience,” said Valiant Richey, global head of outreach and partnerships, trust, and safety at TikTok.
Online safety has become a topic of growing concern as people spend ever-increasing time on social media platforms. In South Africa, the threat of mis- and disinformation peaked towards the national general election in late May, with concerns that election interference propaganda would be fed to South Africans through social media campaigns.
Cooperation agreement
TikTok parent ByteDance, along with Meta and Google, signed a cooperation agreement with the Electoral Commission of South Africa in July 2023 under which the elections agency set up an independent, three-member committee to evaluate any reported cases of misinformation on social media.
TikTok’s advisory council seeks to promote similar objectives with a stronger focus on user education through its #SaferTogether campaign, which aims to promote a basic understanding of the platform’s community guidelines and safety features.
“This initiative will include workshops, social media outreach and partnerships with key stakeholders to raise awareness about the importance of following TikTok’s community standards,” said the company.
