President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday, Nov. 18, partnered with video hosting platform TikTok for “edutainment” geared toward small-scale entrepreneurs.

With over 50 million users nationwide, Marcos wanted to use the platform’s popularity to bolster local sellers in promoting their products, especially those in rural areas.

“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 [sellers],” Tiktok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew told Marcos during their meeting in California, according to the Presidential Communications Office.

“We have a lot of this in Vietnam, a lot of this in Indonesia, a lot of this in Malaysia, a lot of this … and highlight that, give it a platform to sell around the country and export around the world. That’s the plan,” Chew added.

The TikTok chief expressed his excitement toward the project but noted that safety is still a priority to keep the platform focused on creativity and entertainment, which Marcos agreed on.

“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,” Chew said.

Marcos claimed that it was hard to differentiate a strong opinion and fake news on the popular platform.

“[T]he 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

“[B]ecause 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 president added.

Earlier this year, TikTok’s data revealed that around 42.8 million Filipinos have spent time scrolling on the platform.

Since it gained traction among netizens during the pandemic, several countries have implemented partial and complete ban on TikTok over privacy and cybersecurity concerns, namely:

• Afghanistan

• Australia

• Belgium

• Canada

• Denmark

• European Union

• France

• India

• Latvia

• Netherlands

• New Zealand

• Norway

• Pakistan

• Taiwan

• United Kingdom, and

• United States