Albania to close TikTok for at least a year

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced on Saturday, December 21, that the social network TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, would be closed in the country for at least one year, from the beginning of 2025.

“TikTok is the neighborhood thug”Mr. Rama said during a meeting in Tirana with Albanian teachers, parents and psychologists. “We are going to close it for a year and we are going to start rolling out programs that will serve to educate students and help parents follow their children’s journey”he added.

Alongside the closure of TikTok, the Albanian government will launch programs that “will be used for the education of students and will help parents to follow the progress of their children”specified the Prime Minister.

The announcement of the suspension of the controversial social network comes less than a month after a 14-year-old student was killed and another injured in a brawl near a school in Tirana, following a conflict on social networks. After this tragedy, a debate began in the country between parents, psychologists and schools about the impact of social networks on young people.

“Dirt and mud”

“In China, TikTok presents how students can take courses, how to protect nature, how to preserve traditions, but on TikTok outside China we only see dirt and mud. Why do we need this? »lamented Mr. Rama.

The TikTok application, which has more than a billion active users worldwide, is particularly popular with young people, attracted by its ultra-short video formats which scroll continuously.

The application surpasses all its competitors in its ability to capture attention. By 2024, Android users used it for an average of thirty-four hours each month, according to a report from We Are Social.

But this dazzling success comes with criticism. Its detractors accuse TikTok of confining its users to content silos, through an opaque algorithm, and of promoting the dissemination of disinformation and illegal, violent or obscene content, particularly among young people.

The social network is accumulating controversies around the world, from its ban for adolescents in Australia to accusations of espionage in the United States, including the European Union where an investigation has just been opened after suspicions of foreign interference in the canceled presidential election in Romania. TikTok has been banned since 2020 in India, after deadly clashes on the border with China.