ICT and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo has denied the existence of any plans to shut down social media.
Speaking on Monday night during an interview with Citizen TV, Kabogo said he has not foreseen a situation where that will be the case.
He noted that the discussion is also not on the table and that nobody should even think about it.
“I would not envisage or imagine where we would switch off social media. The discussion of switching off is not on the table at all and I want you to remove it even from yourself. It is not there,” the CS said.
He was responding to recent media reports that he would regulate social media platforms.
The CS made the remarks during his vetting in the National Assembly.
He, however, insisted that that was not what he meant.
Kabogo insisted that all he wants is for all Kenyans to express themselves freely but not at the expense of hurting others.
He added that he will create a platform where he will be able to engage the people directly on matters of ICT and how to make the sector better.
“As the new ICT and Digital Economy CS, I want Kenyans to be able to express themselves but expressing yourself doesn’t mean you must be insulting or abusive. I am going to have a platform where everyone will be able to talk to the Minister of ICT on issues of ICT. Come and talk to us. I just hope it will be a decent engagement, if it is not you should be able to ask the person to leave," he said.
Kabogo further explained that the calls to have social media companies have offices in the country are so that the government can have someone to have critical discussions with in relation to usage.
He also reiterated the need for responsibility from owners of the social media platforms.
“You have seen recently they have been asked to have resident offices so that you have somebody to talk to when these things happen. We need to tell the people who own this platform let's be responsible. We've known that information causes war. We can have people start doing things because of information that is credible, good or bad,” the ICT CS added.
