Albania to shut down TikTok for a year amid concern over violence among children

Albanian MPs have decided to shut down TikTok for 12 months, blaming the video-sharing platform for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.

Education minister Ogerta Manastirliu said they are in contact with TikTok on installing filters such as parental controls and the inclusion of the Albanian language in the application.

Authorities had conducted 1,300 meetings with some 65,000 parents who “recommended and were in favour of the shutdown or limiting the TikTok platform,” the minister said.

The Albanian Cabinet initiated the move last year after a teenager stabbed another teenager to death in November after a quarrel that started on TikTok.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the government’s decision.

When Prime Minister Edi Rama said in December they were aiming to close the social media platform, TikTok asked for “urgent clarity from the Albanian government” on the case of the stabbed teenager.

On Thursday Mr Rama said they were in a “positive dialogue with the company” which soon would go to the country to offer “a series of measures on increasing the security for children”.

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 researchers.

There has been increasing concern from Albanian parents after reports of children being inspired by content on social media to take knives to school, or cases of bullying promoted by stories they see on TikTok.

Authorities have increased police presence at some schools and set up other measures including training programmes for teachers, pupils and their parents.

The opposition has not agreed with TikTok’s closure and has set March 15 for a protest against the move. It said the ban was “an act of intolerance, fear and terror from free thinking and expression”.