Criminals are using social media to spread propaganda – Kindiki
Speaking before the Public Petitions Committee, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki has said criminal elements are now using social media platforms to spread malicious propaganda. https://shorturl.at/jF235
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00:00 Mr. Chairman and members, despite these immense opportunities in business, commerce, economics,
00:10 communications, connectivity, and efficiency in the way we do things, the social media
00:19 space, including TikTok, presents grave dangers to the world and to our society today.
00:30 No part of the world is immune from the risks that this space and this platform poses to
00:41 our way of life, to the social fabric, and even to public safety and security of the
00:50 people of the world.
00:53 Honorable Chair, this platform, including all the social media platforms, including
01:03 TikTok, now have become a possible and real, not really a possible, but a real theater
01:16 for misuse by criminals to endanger public safety and security.
01:26 TikTok and other social media platforms are increasingly being used to spread malicious
01:37 content, which is illegal, unlawful, and a violation of fundamental rights and freedoms.
01:46 Chair and members, TikTok and other social media platforms are increasingly being used
01:55 to also generate propaganda, including propaganda for war.
02:04 Terrorist groups, including the famous ones in our corner, Al Shabaab and others, are
02:14 using social media platforms, including TikTok, to generate propaganda for war and also to
02:22 generate the propaganda to advance the ideology of terror and so forth and so on, including
02:32 real or even concocted terrorist activities that are posted on these platforms to spread
02:46 fear to communities, to populations about the invincibility of the terrorist organizations.
02:57 And it's happening across the world.
02:59 A major platform for propaganda for war, but also malicious and unlawful content in this
03:10 space.
03:12 Chair, this space is also being used to steal, hijack, and control popular accounts.
03:25 If a person is a popular account holder of a TikTok account, they risk hijack, control,
03:40 and hacking of their accounts.
03:44 And this has presented security managers around the world with tremendous law enforcement
03:50 challenges.
03:51 The stealing of personal accounts, hijacking them, some even ask for ransom as a way of
04:01 releasing their accounts back to their owners.
04:04 This hijacking and stealing of accounts also has embarrassed public officials, celebrities,
04:11 high profile individuals, including business people and high net worth individuals.
04:20 This space of social media, including the TikTok space, is also being used to dupe the
04:28 people of Kenya and the people of the world into fake and unlawful commercial transactions,
04:41 including luring the people of Kenya and the people of the world to fake foreign exchange
04:49 trade business opportunities.
04:54 Public job recruitment programs that end up conning members of the public in Kenya and
05:03 across the world.
05:06 The biggest challenge, however, is on the violation of the privacy and dignity of the
05:13 people of Kenya through the use of this space to generate offensive sexual content, including
05:25 spreading pornographic material and also exposing children to pornographic content and unlawful
05:39 inappropriate sexual content.
05:44 This TikTok space and other social media spaces and platforms have been used to post intimate
05:54 images, especially through the live feature.
06:00 The live feature of TikTok is being used as a platform of circulating offensive intimate
06:09 images, some of it maliciously posted there, some of it deliberately posted there, and
06:17 this has exposed especially our children into early exposure to destructive content in the
06:32 pornographic and sexual space.
06:37 These risks, as I have enumerated them, chair and members, pose severe distress in our society.
06:50 The risks pose severe social distress to users of TikTok.
07:02 But it also exposes minors to inappropriate content and also promotes social discord for
07:12 the reasons which I have explained.
07:14 Thank you.
07:15 [END]
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