The list of countries wanting to ban the Chinese social network is set to grow. The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, announced on Saturday December 20 that the social network TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, would be closed in the country for at least one year, from the beginning of 2025. “TikTok is the neighborhood thug”said Edi Rama during a meeting in Tirana with Albanian teachers, parents and psychologists. “We are going to close it for a year and we are going to start rolling out programs that will serve to educate students and help parents follow their children’s journey”he added.
The announcement of the suspension of the controversial social network comes less than a month after a 14-year-old student was killed and another injured in a brawl near a school in Tirana, following a conflict over social networks. Following this tragedy, a debate began in the country between parents, psychologists and schools about the impact of social networks on young people.
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34 hours of use per month
“In China, TikTok presents how students can take classes, how to protect nature, how to preserve traditions, but on TikTok outside China we only see dirt and mud. Why do we need this?”deplored Edi Rama.
The TikTok application, which has more than a billion active users worldwide, is particularly popular with young people, attracted by its ultra-short video formats which scroll continuously. It surpasses all its competitors in its ability to capture attention. By 2024, Android users used it for an average of 34 hours each month, according to a report from We Are Social. This dazzling success comes with criticism. Its detractors accuse TikTok of confining its users to content silos, via an opaque algorithm, and of promoting the dissemination of disinformation and illegal, violent or obscene content, particularly among young people.
The social network is accumulating controversies around the world, from its ban on adolescents in Australia to accusations of espionage in the United States, including the European Union where an investigation has just been opened after suspicions of foreign interference in the canceled presidential election in Romania. TikTok has been banned since 2020 in India, after deadly clashes on the border with China.
