Albania banned TikTok for a year. On December 21, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced a complete ban on the Chinese-owned social network ByteDance; The regulations are expected to come into force in the coming weeks. To date there have been around twenty blockages of the platform around the world.
The reasons for the ban
Rama announced the decision after holding numerous meetings with teachers and parents on the issue of youth violence. Tension in the country apparently increased after a 14-year-old student was stabbed to death by a classmate in the city of Tirana in November. According to a report by Reutersthe crime occurred after an argument between two boys that began on the platform.
TikTok’s parent company immediately reacted by requesting “urgent clarification” from the Lebanese government. According to Associated PressByteDance found no evidence that the attacker or the victim had accounts on the social network and specified that “several reports confirmed that videos related to the incident were published on another platform.” Rama made a comparison between Douyin, the version of the app used in China, and on TikTok, the one available in the rest of the world. According to Reutersthe president stressed that “in the Chinese TikTok you do not see acts of savagery, perversity, violence, harassment or criminality, on the other hand, the international version is full of harmful content.”
The argument refers to the different moderation policies imposed by ByteDance in the two versions of the platform: more restrictive in China, where the government exercises strong control over social content, and more permissive in the West. The move has raised concerns among civil rights activists. Orkidea Xhafearaj, of the think thank you Tirana-based SciDEV told Reuters that “this sets a dangerous precedent”, the logic is that at any time governments can close several platforms.
The minister’s decision, a few months before the Albanian elections in May 2025, is especially alarming. In Bucharest, the Constitutional Court recently annulled the November 24 presidential election over suspicions of foreign interference via social media. For its part, the European Commission opened a formal investigation to check whether the platform violated the Digital Services Law by not adequately countering the risks of electoral manipulation.
Not only does TikTok’s algorithm encourage neo-Nazi content, but extremist organizations also leverage the platform to recruit new members and incite real-world action.
Global overview of restrictions
More than twenty countries have imposed restrictions on TikTok due to concerns about data security and the influence of the Chinese government. The most important battle is being fought in the United States, where the platform has 170 million users. A federal appeals court on December 6 rejected the Chinese company’s appeal against the law to sell or ban the platform, signed by President Joe Biden, in April; which forces ByteDance to divest from TikTok before January 19, 2025 or face a total ban. The situation is made even more uncertain by the possible intervention of Donald Trump, who after meeting with the CEO of TikTok commented that he would “take a look at the situation”, showing a more conciliatory approach than in the past.
Restrictions vary from country to country: Taiwan banned TikTok on government devices starting in 2023, followed by the European Union, which imposed the same ban on its more than 30,000 employees. Canada, Latvia, Denmark, Belgium and the United Kingdom also adopted similar measures for government devices.
In Australia, Parliament passed a law completely banning access to social media for all young people under the age of 16, the first of its kind in the world. Platforms that do not implement adequate age verification systems risk fines of up to $32 million. Venezuela recently fined ByteDance $10 million and forced the company to open offices in the country. They accuse the company of not taking preventive measures to prevent the spread of certain “trends or challenges”, causing the death of three teenagers from chemical poisoning. Judge Tania D’Amelio ruled that the funds will go towards creating a “fund for TikTok victims intended to compensate for psychological, emotional and physical harm suffered by users.”
Article originally published in WIRED Italy. Adapted by Alondra Flores.
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