Albania will close Tiktok for one year amid concern for violence among children

Albanian deputies decided to stop Tiktok for 12 months, blaming the video sharing platform for inciting violence and intimidation, especially among children.

The Minister of Education, Ogerta Manastirliu, said they are in contact with Tiktok for the installation of filters, such as parental checks and including Albanian in the application.

The authorities led 1,300 meetings with approximately 65,000 parents who “recommended and were in favor of closing or limiting the Tiktok platform,” said the minister.

The Albanian office initiated the movement last year, after a teenager stabbed another teenager in November, after a quarrel who started Tiktok.

Tiktok did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the Government’s decision.

When Prime Minister Edi Rama said in December that they were to close the social platform, Tiktok demanded “urgent clarity from the Albanian government” in the case of the stabbed teenager.

On Thursday, Mr. Rama said they were in a “positive dialogue with the company”, which will soon go to the country to provide “a series of measures to increase children’s security”.

The company said that “he did not find any evidence that his perpetrator had Tiktok accounts, and several reports actually confirmed videos that led to this incident were posted on another platform, not Tiktok.”

Albanian children include the largest group of Tiktok users in the country, according to researchers.

There was an increasing concern on the part of Albanian parents, after the reports of children who were inspired by the content on social networks to take knives to school or intimidation cases promoted by the stories I see on Tiktok.

Authorities have increased the presence of police in some schools and have established other measures, including training programs for teachers, students and parents.

The opposition did not agree with Tiktok’s closure and set on March 15 for a protest against the movement. He said that the ban was “an act of intolerance, fear and terror from free thinking and expression.”