Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has announced plans to ban TikTok for at least one year starting in January, following the tragic death of a schoolboy last month. The incident has intensified concerns over the platform’s negative influence on children.
“We are going to close it for a year, and we are going to start rolling out programs that will serve the education of students and help parents follow their children’s journey,” Rama stated during a meeting with teachers, parents, and psychologists in Tirana on Saturday.
The move comes after the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old boy near a school in southern Tirana, allegedly sparked by a social media confrontation. Another student was also injured in the incident. Rama pointed to TikTok’s global content disparities as a key issue.
“In China, TikTok promotes how students can take courses, how to protect nature, how to keep traditions, but on the TikTok outside China, we see only scum and mud. Why do we need this?” he remarked, labeling the platform as “the thug of the neighbourhood.”
This decision adds to TikTok’s growing challenges globally. The app has already been banned in countries such as India, Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Somalia. In the U.S., lawmakers are pushing for a ban unless TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the platform by January 19.
TikTok has responded to Albania’s announcement, seeking urgent clarifications from the government. The company denied any connection between the platform and the fatal incident, stating, according to the BBC, that neither the suspect nor the victim had TikTok accounts.
The ban reflects a broader trend of skepticism toward TikTok amid concerns about its impact on national security and children’s well-being.
