Albania to close TikTok for a year blaming it for promoting violence among children

TIRANA, Albania — 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. 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. 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.