The Albanian office decided on Thursday to close Tiktok for 12 months, accusing the popular video sharing platform of inciting violence and intimidation, especially among children.
Tiktok Photo App: EPA-EFE
The Minister of Education, Ogerta Manastirliu, announced that authorities are already working with Internet providers and online platforms to implement the prohibition. “The decision will be implemented in a few days or, at the latest in a week”he said.
The authorities organized 1,300 meetings with approximately 65,000 parents, who supported the closing or restriction of the platform. Also, Manastirliu stressed that the authorities are in contact with Tiktok to introduce safety measures, including parental control filters and the translation of the application in Albanian, writes apnews.com.
The opposition criticized the measure of the government, considering it an attack on freedom of expression. The opposition parties announced the organization of a protest on March 15, considering the prohibition as “an act of intolerance to free thinking. ”
The government initiated this measure last year, after a teenager fatally stabbed another young man in November, following a dispute that started Tiktok.
Tiktok did not respond immediately to the request to comment on the decision of the Albanian authorities. When Prime Minister Edi Rama announced in December that he intends to close the social platform, Tiktok asked for “Urgent clarifications from the Albanian government ” regarding the case of the stabbed teenager.
Thursday, Rama said he was in a “positive dialogue with the company ”to come soon in Albania to propose “A number of measures to increase children’s safety. ”
The company stated that it did not find “No proof that the aggressor or victim had accounts on Tiktok and that several reports confirmed, in fact, that the videos that led to this incident were posted on another platform, not Tiktok.”
According to researchers, Albanian children are the largest group of Tiktok users in the country. Parents are increasingly worried after reporting reports that some children have been inspired by the content on social networks to take knives to school. The authorities intensified the presence of the police in some schools and implemented other measures, including training programs for teachers, students and parents.
