Albania will close access to TikTok for at least one year, starting in early 2025.
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The Prime Minister announced on Saturday Eddie Rama, who called the application a “neighborhood bully” that spreads “filth and garbage.”
The announcement of the closure of the social network, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance and followed by one billion active users in the world, comes less than a month after the death of a student from 14 years in a fight near a school in Tirana, the capital, after a dispute on social media.
As a result of the tragedy, a debate began in the country between parents, psychologists and schools about the impact of networks on young people.
“TikTok is the neighborhood bully,” Rama declared at a meeting in Tirana with Albanian teachers, parents and psychologists. “We are going to expel this bully from our neighborhood for a year,” he added.
“In China, TikTok shows how students can follow classes, how to protect nature, how to preserve traditions, but on TikTok outside of China we only see filth and garbage. Why do we need this?” commented Rama.
In parallel, the Albanian government will launch programs that “will serve the education of students and help parents follow their children’s study program,” said the prime minister.
The popularity of Tiktok
The application TikTok It is particularly popular among young people around the world, attracted by its ultra-short video formats that scroll continuously.
The app surpasses all its competitors in its ability to capture attention.
The users of Android they used it in 2024 an average of 34 hours each month, according to a report by We Are Social. But this dizzying success comes with criticism.
His detractors accuse TikTok of locking its users in content silos, through an opaque algorithm, and of promoting the spread of misinformation and illegal, violent or obscene content, especially among young people.
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Among the neighboring countries of Albania, also Kosovo, Macedonia of the Norte y Serbia They highlighted the negative impact of the platform among young people. Two months ago, at least 22 cases of self-harm were reported among girls from different schools in the city of Gjakova, in southwestern Kosovo, all of them related to a dangerous challenge in TikTok.
The media in North Macedonia reported two weeks ago that dozens of teenagers were hospitalized for injuries suffered after playing the “superman” challenge, TikTok which consists of being thrown into the air.