Nigerian actress and media personality, Lolo1, has voiced strong concerns over the content circulating on TikTok, calling for stricter regulation of the platform in Nigeria to curb what she describes as a surge in indecent and vulgar material.
During a recent table talk on News Central TV, Lolo emphasised the increasing normalisation of sexually suggestive content across social media, particularly singling out TikTok as a platform that, in her view, lacks sufficient measures against inappropriate material.
I think pornography and nudity are things we shy away from. Now when we look at both men and women, before they used to lay indecent dressing at the feet of women. But now I see men dress as provocatively as women can. I’ve seen men wear things to make me look up because I don’t know where to look.
The actress pointed to the ease with which suggestive content can now be produced and accessed online. “The accessibility to photography is what is troubling to me, especially because we can’t actually put a lid on it,” she said.
Lolo also stressed the need for platforms to monitor their content closely, and not just content in English, but also in local languages. She stressed that some people use their native tongues to express “very vulgar things,” on TikTok.
Social media is also as bad, but to me Instagram is better, I have stopped accessing places like tiktok because it terrifies me. Tiktok is like a freeway into everything. I think they need to do something about it, I remain an advocate for some kind of limitation on social media or regulation. There are some words they shouldn’t allow on there and not just English. People on tiktok also use their mother tongue to say all sorts of rubbish too, very vulgar things.
