Kenyan selected to sit in TikTok's Sub-Saharan Safety Council

A Kenyan will for the first time serve in TikTok’s newly launched Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council.

Lillian Kariuki, founder and executive director of Watoto Watch Network will join seven other persons in the council that will play a vital role in shaping TikTok’s policies, product features, and safety processes, ensuring the platform remains responsive to evolving challenges.

The announcement was made at TikTok's Safety Summit held in Nairobi on Wednesday evening.

“I am very grateful to be announced as one of the Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council members. We will be advising and guiding TikTok in terms of safety and policy during product launches in the region,” Kariuki said after the announcement.

The establishment of the council is part of TikTok’s steps to boost safety on its platform across Sub-Saharan Africa and the expansion of its #SaferTogether community education campaign that incorporates members from academia, NGOs, and community leaders.

Since 2020, TikTok has established nine regional Safety Advisory Councils alongside the U.S. Content Advisory Council, each composed of experts in areas such as youth safety, free expression, and hate speech.

The new members will bring together local experts who will collaborate with TikTok in developing forward-looking policies and address regional safety concerns, helping the popular short video platform manage current issues and anticipate future challenges.

Kariuki is a child protection specialist for the last 14 years. Other members of the Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council are: 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); Dr Akinola Olojo, Expert on preventing and countering violent extremism (Nigeria); Prof Medhane Tadesse, Policy academic on peace and security issues (Ethiopia); and Berhan Taye, Independent Researcher (Ethiopia)

"With the launch of the Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council, we are demonstrating our commitment to including expert African voices in our Trust and Safety work. This group of leaders was chosen for their broad range of expertise and experience, and we look forward to working with them over the coming years,” says Valiant Richey, Global Head of Outreach and Partnerships, Trust and Safety at TikTok

The #SaferTogether campaign is designed to engage the community in actively promoting a basic understanding of the platform's community guidelines and safety features.

It will include workshops, social media outreach, and partnerships with key stakeholders to raise awareness about the importance of following TikTok’s community standards. The guidelines are continuously updated to address emerging safety concerns in different regions.

Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda, Director of Government Relations and Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa said: “The community empowerment campaign highlights the importance of safety being a shared responsibility. This part of the campaign will speak directly to the TikTok community, to join us in making the platform a safer space for all by ensuring they follow the Community Guidelines and use the safety features available to them. With the additional layer that the Safety Advisory Council presents, we believe that safety can be achieved, collectively.”

In Kenya, TikTok has conducted workshops in 26 out of 47 counties and reached over 64,000 students and youth aged 13 to 24 years in secondary schools and universities as well as 467 parents and 346 teachers.

Samuel Njoroge (Sammy Saich), whose football skit videos reach over 13 million views says the safety guidelines will weed out unscrupulous individuals on TikTok, a platform that has gained popularity among Kenya’s youth.

“It's a good thing because some don't know how to use this media in the right way. The idea is to push educative and entertaining content, creating happiness with strangers. All content creators need to know about safety. You may have good content but some of it may violate the safety policies,” says Njoroge, a graduate of the 2023 TikTok Africa Creator Hub in Nairobi.