In what comes as another blow to TikTok, Albania on Saturday announced that it will shut down the video service platform for a year, accusing it of inciting violence and bullying. This decision comes after Albanian authorities held almost 1,300 meetings with parents and teachers following the incident of stabling which saw a teenager dead in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started on TikTok.
The announcement was made by Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama, who at a meeting with teachers and parents, said TikTok “would be fully closed for all.” He added, “There will be no TikTok in the Republic of Albania”. Rama said the shutdown would begin sometime next year. However, it was not immediately clear if TikTok has a contact in Albania.
TikTok asks for clarity
TikTok, in an email response on Saturday to a request for comment, asked for “urgent clarity from the Albanian government” on the case of the stabbed teenager. The company said it had “found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts, and multiple reports have in fact confirmed videos leading up to this incident were being posted on another platform, not TikTok”.
Albanian children comprise the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to domestic researchers.
Why has Albania banned TikTok?
There has been increasing concern from Albanian parents after reports of children taking knives and other objects to school to use in quarrels or cases of bullying promoted by stories they see on TikTok.
TikTok’s operations in China, where its parent company is based, are different, “promoting how to better study, how to preserve nature and so on”, according to Rama.
Albania is too small a country to impose on TikTok a change of its algorithm so that it does not promote “the reproduction of the unending hell of the language of hatred, violence, bullying and so on”, Rama’s office wrote in an email response to The Associated Press’ request for comment. Rama’s office said that in China, TikTok “prevents children from being sucked into this abyss”.
Authorities have set up a series of protective measures at schools, starting with an increased police presence, training programmes and closer cooperation with parents.
Rama said Albania would follow how the company and other countries react to the one-year shutdown before deciding whether to allow the company to resume operations in Albania. Not everyone agreed with Rama’s decision to close TikTok.
“The dictatorial decision to close the social media platform TikTok is a grave act against freedom of speech and democracy,” said Ina Zhupa, a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party. “It is a pure electoral act and abuse of power to suppress freedoms.”
It is to be noted that Albania holds parliamentary elections next year.
(With agency inputs)
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