President John Dramani Mahama has called for a broad stakeholder discussion on the regulation of TikTok and other new media platforms, saying Ghana must strike a balance between protecting free expression and maintaining information integrity.
Speaking at a townhall meeting with the Ghanaian community in New York on Friday, September 25, 2026, Mr Mahama said the rapid growth of social media had fundamentally changed the media landscape and created new challenges for governments and society.
He said traditional media organisations generally attached their reputations to published reports, whereas social media allowed individuals to disseminate information without the same institutional accountability.
“The media has become democratised. Anybody with a mobile phone can disseminate information,” he said.
The President said TikTok had introduced additional challenges because of its algorithm-driven distribution of content, which could repeatedly expose users to similar material.
He said the issue of regulating the platform was not unique to Ghana, noting that countries around the world were grappling with similar concerns.
Mr Mahama said he had asked the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) to convene stakeholders to deliberate on the appropriate approach.
“Let’s all collectively take a decision on what we want to do with the new media. Should the police get involved or they shouldn’t get involved? How do we regulate it?” he said.
He said the outcome of the proposed forum would be presented to Cabinet to guide government policy on how cases involving social media should be handled.
Mr Mahama cautioned against allowing enforcement to go unchecked, saying “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 the objective should be to establish clear guidelines while preserving Ghana’s commitment to free expression.
