Albanian PM says TikTok ban not ‘rushed reaction to single incident’

Albania’s Prime Minister has said the ban on TikTok announced by his government was “not a rushed reaction to a single incident”.

On Saturday, Edi Rama said the government will shut down TikTok for one year, accusing the popular video service of inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.

Authorities have held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents since the stabbing death of a teenager by another youngster in November after a quarrel that started on social media apps. Ninety percent of them approve of the ban on TikTok, the government said.

However, Mr Rama said: “The ban on TikTok for one year in Albania is not a rushed reaction to a single incident, but a carefully considered decision made in consultation with parent communities in schools across the country.”

Following Tirana’s decision, TikTok asked for “urgent clarity from the Albanian government” in 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”.

Mr Rama said: “To claim that the killing of the teenage boy has no connection to TikTok because the conflict didn’t originate on the platform demonstrates a failure to grasp both the seriousness of the threat TikTok poses to children and youth today and the rationale behind our decision to take responsibility for addressing this threat.

“Albania may be too small to demand that TikTok protect children and youth from the frightening pitfalls of its algorithm,” he went on, blaming TikTok for “the reproduction of the unending hell of the language of hatred, violence, bullying and so on”.

Albanian children comprise the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to domestic researchers.

Many youngsters in Albania did not approve of the ban.

“We disclose our daily life and entertain ourselves, that is, we exploit it during our free time,” said Samuel Sulmani, an 18-year-old in the town of Rreshen, 47 miles north of the capital Tirana, on Sunday.

“We do not agree with that because that’s a deprivation for us.”

But Albanian parents have been increasingly concerned following 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.

“Our decision couldn’t be clearer: Either TikTok protects the children of Albania, or Albania will protect its children from TikTok,” said Mr Rama.