The Albanian cabinet decided to close Tiktok for 12 months on Thursday, denounced popular video sharing platforms for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.
Education Minister Ogerta Manastirliu said officials are in contact with Tiktok by installing filters such as parental control, age verification and inclusion of Albanian language in the application.
Authorities had held 1,300 meetings with around 65,000 parents “advocated and supported the closure or restriction of Tiktok's platform,” the minister said.
The cabinet began its move last year after a teenager stabbed another teenager in November after an argument that began in Tiktok.
Tiktok did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the government's decision.
When Prime Minister Eddie Rama said in December he was aiming to close social media platforms, Tiktok called for “urgent clarity from the Albanian government” on the incident involving a stabbing teenager.
On Thursday, the Rama said he was in “positive dialogue with the company” and that Tiktok would soon visit the country and provide a “scheduled measure to increase child security.”
The company said it had not found any evidence that the perpetrator or victim had a Tiktok account, and in fact multiple reports have confirmed that the videos leading up to this incident have been posted on another platform, not Tiktok.
Researchers say Albanian children form the largest group of Tiktok users in the country.
Concerns have risen from Albanian parents after reports of cases of bullying that were inspired by social media content to bring knives to schools or facilitated by stories seen in Tiktok.
Authorities have increased the presence of police in some schools and have set up other measures, including training programs for teachers, students and their parents.
The opposition parties have not agreed to the closure of Tiktok and set it up on March 15th in protest against the move. He said the prohibition is “acts of intolerance, fear and fear from free thought and expression.”
Tiktok, run by Chinese technology companies ordinances, has faced questions in many countries, and recently, temporarily offline in the US to comply with laws requiring the ordinance to be eliminated or banned in the US.
The app suspended the service in the US in less than a day, where he postponed banning it before restoring it following a guarantee from Trump.
Earlier this week, the UK Data Protection Watchdog said it was investigating how apps use personal information for ages 13-17 to provide content recommendations.
The Information Committee said there is growing concern about how social media platforms can use data generated by children's online activities to enhance recommended algorithms and the likelihood that they may see inappropriate or harmful content as a result.
