TikTok and the digital pimps: Eye Investigates

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With its dancing challenges and comedy sketches, it’s no surprise why Tiktok is popular with young Kenyans. It’s also a way for them to make money through the app’s gifting service. But there’s a darker side, where young women – and girls as young as 15 – are selling sexual content on livestreams, with some being recruited and exploited by “digital pimps”. Africa Eye’s Debula Kemoli investigates who is profiting. A spokesperson for Tiktok said in a statement that they have zero tolerance for exploitation. And they enforce strict safety policies, including robust live content rules and moderation in 70 languages, including Swahili. Producers: Nalini Sivathasan and Patrick Clahane Editors: Pete Murimi and Rebecca Henschke Sound engineer: Neil Churchill

Transcript

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0:00.0	Tapa, you share the live and you gift my girls.
0:05.6	Tap share and gift, tap share and gift.
0:08.2	It's after midnight in Nairobi, and I'm on TikTok.
0:11.9	I'm flicking through videos, and there's lots of live shows taking place.
0:16.4	My number is on the bio, guys.
0:18.7	Inbox.
0:18.9	In box, yes're taking an ad. In box. In box.
0:21.6	Yes, come now.
0:22.6	In this one, young women are taking it in turns to dance.
0:28.6	There's 450 other people watching and commenting.
0:32.6	Some have emojis of flags on their profiles.
0:35.6	Britain, America, Ghana.
0:38.8	They're from all over the world.
0:43.1	Now, a woman in her bedroom is on camera.
0:46.5	This is her turn on stage.
0:49.5	She's wearing a t-shirt and a kind of sarong around her waist.
0:53.8	She's starting to twark. Her sarong
0:56.6	flutters up and down suggestively. Once she's done, she turns her camera off and her profile
1:04.2	picture pops up. It's showing a bit of her cleavage. Then another woman switches on her camera and begins to dance.
1:14.3	While they're all in different locations, there is a host who's directing them.
1:24.5	He's telling the women when to stop and start dancing, and he's hyping up the audience, asking them to send gifts.
1:31.7	Switch the boxes, guys. Make sure you're... Where, where, thunderstorm. Elevate them, elevate the dancers, he says.
	...

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