Former President John Dramani Mahama has called for a national discussion on how Ghana should regulate TikTok and other social media platforms.

He said the challenge of regulating TikTok was not unique to Ghana, as countries around the world were also considering how to protect information integrity on the platform.

“But there's a new media called TikTok and it's not only Ghana where people are wondering what to do to regulate TikTok,” he said.

“Because in all countries, all over the world, they are wondering what to do to make sure that we have information, integrity.”

Mr Mahama said the ease with which people can create and share content on TikTok had created a challenge because anyone with a phone could publish what they wanted.

“Even with TikTok, anybody who has a phone just puts it in front of him and just says whatever he likes,” he said.

“And once they put it out, it has an algorithm that shares it.”

He explained that the platform’s algorithm has the potential to increase the popularity of concerning content.

“And so if you listen to something similar, it will bring you another one that's similar to bring you another one that's similar,” he said.

“So even if you don't want to watch it, sometimes you want to open something else and then it will cut in.”

Need for Regulation

Mr Mahama said Ghana needed to bring stakeholders together to decide how social media platforms should be regulated and whether the police should have a role in enforcing such regulations.

He referred to a letter from his executive secretary to the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), calling for stakeholders to be brought together.

“Bring all the stakeholders together and hold a workshop or a forum and let's all collectively take a decision on what we want to do with the new media,” he said.

“Should the police get involved or they shouldn't get involved? How do we regulate it? You come out and tell us.”

He said the discussion should determine whether Ghana wanted to establish rules for regulating online content or maintain a broad approach to free expression.

“And so let's all decide what we want to do so that we either find a way of regulating it or we say we're a country of free expression so anybody can say whatever he wants,” he said.

Mr Mahama also cautioned that enforcement could go too far if there were no clear boundaries.

“Sometimes the police can go to the extreme and you never know, once you start arresting, you don't know where to stop,” he said.

He said the issue therefore required a collective decision on the approach Ghana should adopt towards social media regulation.