EU aspirant shuts down TikTok

The Albanian authorities has sanctioned a one-year censor on TikTok in the rural area, training Minister Ogerta Manastirliu announced on Thursday. The measure stems from growing concern within the government over violence and bullying on the platform, particularly among children. 

The year-long ban was first announced by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in late December shortly after the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old schoolboy by a fellow student following an argument on social media. The ban will take effect within days. 

Rama said on Thursday that approval of the restriction followed consultations with around 65,000 parents, many of whom supported shutting down or limiting access to the platform. He emphasized that the government was in a “positive dialogue with the company,” and that TikTok representatives would visit the country soon to offer “a series of measures on increasing the security for children.”

Albanian officials are in contact with TikTok about implementing tools to regulate children’s access to the platform and restrict harmful content, Manastirliu said, commenting on the measure.

According to the minister, the ban will remain in place until the platform implements the necessary filters, such as parental controls and age verification, and adds the Albanian language to the app.

TikTok expressed its opposition to a potential ban when the idea was first floated in December. According to AP, the company sought “urgent clarity from the Albanian government,” arguing that neither the victim of the fatal stabbing nor the attacker had used the platform.

Albania applied for EU membership in 2009 and was granted EU candidate status five years later. The bloc held its first intergovernmental conference with Albania in 2022.

TikTok and its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, were developed by ByteDance, a company registered in the Cayman Islands. The Chinese origins of the globally popular platform have drawn scrutiny from many Western governments.

Earlier this week, the UK’s data protection watchdog said it was investigating how the app uses the personal information of 13- to 17-year-olds to generate content recommendations.

The US is currently trying to force TikTok’s parent company to divest of its American operations, citing national security concerns. ByteDance faces a deadline of April 5 to comply. 

The platform is also under investigation in the EU over allegations that it was used in a campaign supporting Romanian independent presidential candidate Calin Georgescu.