MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has tapped TikTok for a government “partnership” on “edutainment” to help small sellers and entrepreneurs, Malacañang said on Saturday, November 18.

“The President wanted Tiktok to train local sellers, particularly those in the rural areas, to promote their products,” the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said in a press statement, noting that TikTok has millions of users.

The Philippine leader met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in San Francisco, California.

“President Marcos noted the popularity of TikTok among its users and agreed with TikTok chief executive officer Shou Zi Chew on how to train local sellers and promote their products through the platform,” the PCO statement said.

In response, Chew told Marcos: “We want to give more resources and highlight and train the local sellers in the more rural parts of the country because that’s one thing interesting on the platform. What we want to do is highlight local products, especially from smaller 

Some countries have imposed full or partial bans on TikTok on government devices due to security and privacy concerns. There is a bipartisan move in the US Congress for a country-wide ban on TikTok.

During his meeting with Marcos, Chew acknowledged the importance of keeping the platform safe. (READ: TikTok CEO grilled by US lawmakers over ‘dangerous’ content)

 “So, we want to keep it at that. [The] rules that keep people civil and keep the platform safe. So, we have community guidelines like no violence, no [to] sexual abuse material, we have all these guidelines and we have a team of people who moderate content,” he said, as quoted by PCO.

“So, if there’s anything that crosses the guidelines, we will moderate. And we have local representative who is working very closely with one of the regulators as well. We get feedback and move very quickly if there is something that we spot is violated on the platform and that’s something that we take extremely, seriously,” he added.

The PCO said that Marcos “agreed with Chew, saying it is quite difficult to differentiate between what is just a strong opinion as against what is considered as fake news.”

“But just the differences in opinion and how they’re expressed, that sometimes is very hard to determine whether you…where is it excessive and where is it acceptable but I suppose you have all the rules and…that you need to do that,” Marcos said.

“Because Tiktok, I mean from the beginning was quite really just a very lighthearted platform but then just because of its popularity like for example, for someone like me who’s in politics, if you’re talking to 50 million people, then I need to be part of that conversation…. So, it’s inevitable…the many sides, multi-faceted side will come in,” the Philippine leader added.

In August, the Marcos government  launched what it called a “unified effort” against false information online, partnering with Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, and WhatsApp), Google, TikTok, and X – social media networks where disinformation typically spreads. – Rappler.com