XPost: alt.school.violence, or.politics, sac.politics
XPost: talk.politics.guns
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albania’s prime minister said Saturday the
government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming
it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.
Albanian authorities held 1,300 meetings with teachers and parents
following the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started on TikTok.
Prime Minister Edi Rama, speaking at a meeting with teachers and parents,
said TikTok “would be fully closed for all. … There will be no TikTok in
the Republic of Albania.” Rama said the shutdown would begin sometime next year.
It was not immediately clear if TikTok has a contact in Albania.
TikTok in an email response Saturday to a request for comment asked for
“urgent clarity from the Albanian government” on the case of the stabbed teenager. The company said it had “found no evidence that the perpetrator
or victim had TikTok accounts, and multiple reports have in fact confirmed videos leading up to this incident were being posted on another platform,
not TikTok.”
Albanian children comprise the largest group of TikTok users in the
country, according to domestic researchers.
There has been increasing concern from Albanian parents after reports of children taking knives and other objects to school to use in quarrels or
cases of bullying promoted by stories they see on TikTok.
TikTok’s operations in China, where its parent company is based, are
different, “promoting how to better study, how to preserve nature … and so
on,” according to Rama.
Albania is too small a country to impose on TikTok a change of its
algorithm so that it does not promote “the reproduction of the unending
hell of the language of hatred, violence, bullying and so on,” Rama’s
office wrote in an email response to The Associated Press’ request for
comment. Rama’s office said that in China TikTok “prevents children from
being sucked into this abyss.”
Authorities have set up a series of protective measures at schools,
starting with an increased police presence, training programs and closer cooperation with parents.
Rama said Albania would follow how the company and other countries react
to the one-year shutdown before deciding whether to allow the company to
resume operations in Albania.
Not everyone agreed with Rama’s decision to close TikTok.
“The dictatorial decision to close the social media platform TikTok … is a grave act against freedom of speech and democracy,” said Ina Zhupa, a
lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party. “It is a pure electoral
act and abuse of power to suppress freedoms.”
Albania holds parliamentary elections next year.
https://ktla.com/news/technology/ap-technology/ap-albania-to-close-tiktok- for-a-year-blaming-it-for-promoting-violence-among-children/
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