Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has announced his government’s intention to ban TikTok for at least one year starting from January following the death of a schoolboy last month that further fueled fears about the influence of the short video-sharing platform on children.
“We are going to close it for a year, and we are going to start rolling out programs that will serve the education of students and help parents follow their children’s journey,” Mr Rama said during a meeting with teachers, parents and psychologists in Albania’s capital Tirana on Saturday.
Discussions around the negative impact of social media on children were further amplified a couple of weeks ago after a 14-year-old school was killed and another injured in a fight near a school in southern Tirana, with reports suggesting the confrontation began on social media.
“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?” Mr Rama said.
He described TikTok as “the thug of the neighbourhood.”
This is the latest setback in TikTok’s moves to redeem its reputation over threats to national security and harmful influences on children in many countries.
The company said it is seeking urgent clarifications from the Albanian government about the proposed ban.
According to the BBC, TikTok said it found no evidence that the suspect who stabbed the 14-year-old boy or the victim himself had TikTok accounts.
TikTok is already banned in India, Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan and Somalia, with the U.S. moving to join the list after Congress passed a bill to ban the app in the country if its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, does not sell the platform by January 19 on national security grounds.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear last-minute legal arguments from TikTok as to why it should not be banned or sold, with a hearing scheduled for January 10.