Albania: TikTok banned for a year after teenage boy stabbed

Albania will ban TikTok for a year after a 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death last month in an argument that started on social media.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama in Brussels. Picture: AFP

Albania will ban TikTok for a year after a 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death last month in an argument that started on social media.

Edi Rama, the Prime Minister, said: “We’ll be completely shutting it down for everyone. There will be no TikTok in Albania. We are going to chase this thug out of our neighbourhood.”

Debate about the use of the Chinese-owned video platform by children has intensified in Albania since the teenager’s death and reports that young people were defending the killing on TikTok.

“In over 1300 meetings we have had with parents nationwide, in which more than 65,000 parents participated, 90 per cent backed closing down TikTok,” Mr Rama said. “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?”

TikTok said there was no evidence that the stabbing victim or his killer had TikTok accounts, and argued that the videos leading up to the attack had been shared on another platform. The company said it was seeking “urgent clarity” from the Albanian government.

Sali Berisha, a former president and prime minister of Albania, which will hold elections next year, accused Mr Rama of “closing down TikTok because his support on social media decreased”.

Last month Australia approved a blanket ban on social media for children under 16, and India banned TikTok in 2020.

THE TIMES