Albania has announced a one-year ban on TikTok following the killing of a teenager last month that raised fears over the influence of social media on children.
Edi Rama, the prime minister, confirmed the ban, part of a broader plan to make schools safer, after meeting parents’ groups and teachers from across the country.
“For one year, we’ll be completely shutting it down for everyone. There will be no TikTok in Albania,” Rama said.
TikTok, asked to comment on Saturday, requested “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”.
Several European countries including France, Germany and Belgium have enforced restrictions on social media use for children. In one of the world’s toughest regulations targeting big tech, Australia approved in November a complete social media ban for children under 16.
Rama has blamed social media, and TikTok in particular, for fuelling violence among youths in and outside school. His government’s decision comes after a 14-year-old schoolboy was stabbed to death in November by a fellow pupil.
Local media had reported that the incident came after arguments between the two boys on social media. Videos had also emerged on TikTok of young people supporting the killing.
“The problem today is not our children, the problem today is us, the problem today is our society, the problem today is TikTok and all the others that are taking our children hostage,” Rama said.
Albanian children comprise the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to domestic researchers.
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 said on Saturday. It 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 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 TikTok 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.”
The ban is expected to come into effect early next year.
