TIRANA, Dec. 26, 2024 – The Albanian government’s recent announcement that will ban for at least a year the use within the country of the popular social media platform TikTok has generated debate over the impact of social media on society and the decision’s impact on free speech.
According to the government, the decision came as part of a broader effort to enhance school safety following the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old student in November.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking at a national consultation meeting with parents and teachers, justified the ban, saying TikTok was “much stronger, much more influential, much more enticing, than a ‘street punk.’”
The decision, Rama said, follows weeks of consultations between education officials and parents, prompted by the death of Martin Cani, a student at Fan Noli School in Tirana. The incident, which reportedly began as an argument on social media and escalated into a deadly altercation, shocked the nation and spurred widespread protests from parents.
As part of the government’s safety plan, the ban will be accompanied by the installation of surveillance cameras in and around schools, stricter rules on cellphone use during classes, and a doubling of school security officers, who will work more closely with state police.
“We’ve conducted all our tech research, and it will take six to eight weeks to implement. For one year, TikTok will be completely shut down across the Republic of Albania. After that, we’ll evaluate how other countries are addressing these issues and what new technological measures or filters may emerge,” Rama said.
The government has the power through AKSHI, the digital regulator, to shut access to websites and apps by ordering domestic internet providers to comply. It has used that power before to shut down minor websites, but nothing on a scale of TikTok, which has about 1.5 million users in Albania.
TikTok’s Chinese owners told international media they were seeking “urgent clarifications from the Albanian government” regarding the shut down.
The company denied any connection to the events, saying it “found no evidence that either the perpetrator or the victim had TikTok accounts.” TikTok further noted that “multiple reports confirmed the videos that led to this incident were posted on another platform, not TikTok.”
‘Against freedom of speech’
The ban has sparked a heated debate in Albania, where children are among the platform’s largest user demographic, according to local researchers. Parents have voiced increasing concerns over reports of students bringing knives and other weapons to school, allegedly influenced by content they view on social media.
On the other hand, free speech activists see the general ban over protecting children as an excuse to clamp down on free speech, setting a dangerous precedent for shutting down other social media ahead the elections.
The political opposition also accuse the government of overreach and of hampering free speech.
Ina Zhupa, a Democratic Party lawmaker, condemned the move as “a dictatorial decision against freedom of speech and democracy.” She added, “This is purely an electoral stunt and an abuse of power to suppress freedoms.”
Albania is set to hold parliamentary elections next year, adding a political dimension to the controversy. Small political parties and new entrants in particular rely on social media to get their message out, but traditional parties also use TikTok with a large following including Rama and opposition leader Sali Berisha.
Berisha said he would reverse the decision if he wins the upcoming elections, and condemned it as an act of censorship.
‘Virtue signaling’ by Rama
Independent observers note that with the international media savviness of the Albanian prime minister, TikTok, was the easiest target of social media to shut down due to it being owned by a Chinese company and partial bans it has received on official devices in the West. Although they note the platform has not been completely banned in any other country that professes to be democratic and liberal.
“The prime minister gets to do virtue signaling while also censoring the political opposition at home,” one digital media analyst told Tirana Times, adding it is not really possible to ban the app as people dedicated enough will likely resort to the use of VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, which bypass geographical censorship and are widely used by people living under authoritarian regimes.
The reason many political activists rely on social media is to reach younger voters who have largely abandoned traditional media. Albanian traditional media has also seen a steady decline in the Reporters Without Borders free press index, ranking 99th out 180 in the 2024 index.
