Albanian PM says TikTok ban wasn’t a hasty reaction: NPR

A view of the TikTok app logo in Tokyo, Japan, September 28, 2020.

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Kiichiro Sato/AP

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s prime minister said Sunday the ban on TikTok his government announced a day earlier was “not a hasty reaction to a single incident.”

Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Saturday the government would shut down TikTok for a year, accusing the popular video service of inciting violence and bullying, particularly among children.

Authorities have held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents since a teenager was stabbed by another teenager in November after a dispute began on social media apps. Ninety percent of them support banning TikTok.

“Baning TikTok for a year in Albania is not a hasty response to a single incident, but a carefully considered decision made in consultation with parent communities in schools across the country,” Rama said.

Following the Tirana decision, TikTok asked for “urgent clarification from the Albanian government” in the case of the stabbed teenager. The company said it found “no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts, and in fact, multiple reports have confirmed that videos leading to this incident were posted on another platform and not TikTok.” “

“The claim that the murder of the teenager is unrelated to TikTok because the conflict did not arise on the platform shows that we do not understand the seriousness of the threat that TikTok poses to children and young people today and the reasons for our decision “Take responsibility for dealing with this threat,” Rama said.

“Albania may be too small to demand that TikTok protect children and young people from the frightening pitfalls of its algorithm,” he said, blaming TikTok for “reproducing the endless hell of the language of hate, violence, bullying, etc.” responsible.

According to local researchers, Albanian children make up the largest group of TikTok users in the country.

Many young people in Albania did not agree with the ban.

“We expose our daily lives and entertain ourselves, that is, we exploit it in our free time,” said Samuel Sulmani, an 18-year-old in the town of Rreshen, 75 kilometers (47 miles) north of the capital Tirana. on Sunday. “We don’t agree with that because it’s a deprivation for us.”

But Albanian parents are increasingly concerned after reports of children taking knives and other objects to school to use in arguments or bullying incidents spread through stories they see on TikTok.

“Our decision could not be clearer: either TikTok protects the children of Albania, or Albania will protect its children from TikTok,” Rama said.