Prime Minister Edi Rama and the Minister of Education and Sports, Ogerta Manastirliu, announced on Saturday the decision to close the Tik-Tok social network as a reaction to the murder by a peer of 14-year-old Martin Cani.
"Tragic events like the one near the 'Fan Noli' school or in Cakran remind us of the responsibility to act immediately and decisively so that they don't happen again,"- said Minister Manastirliu during the presentation of the action plan for strengthening security in schools.
Comparing it with "neighborhood street" Prime Minister Rama described Tik-Tok as a negative influence on young people. For this, he said that the social network will be shut down for a year, starting from January 2025, and that it will take 6-8 weeks to shut it down completely.
"Tik-Tok is the street of the neighborhood that we are afraid that the child will associate with him when he leaves the house,"- parallelized Rama.
The prime minister criticized TikTok's content outside of China, considering it a promoting platform "scum and negativity," in contrast to the Chinese version, which according to him, "promotes education and traditions".
"Strays, perversity, violence. You don't see bullying, crime, knives, swords, guns, euros, dollars on China's Tik-Tok. While in Tik-Tok outside of China only scum and only animals. What do we need this for?"- emphasized the Prime Minister.
The decision to shut down TikTok has sparked many reactions. The Tik-Tok company told the journalist Llazër Semini for the Associated Press that it did not had found evidence that the incident near the "Fan Noli" school was connected to her platform, arguing that "the mentioned videos were on another platform" - Snapchat.
"Closing Tik-Tok, censorship decision"
For Elvin Lukun, lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Communication at the University of Tirana, this decision is one "act of censorship" to freedom of expression and the opportunity to promote or do business.
"The silence of traditional media shows political control over the media spectrum,"- he said to Citizens.al, considering the lack of a reaction as a serious indicator of censorship.
Even SCiDEV, the Science and Innovation Center for Development, sees the decision with concern, warning of a dangerous precedent for other platforms.
“General prohibitions […] may apply to other platforms or forms of communication in the future. This is particularly worrying in environments where media freedom and freedom of expression are already under pressure,”- said in the statement of SCiDEV.
But Luku sees the closure of Tik-Tok as the final act of a series of attempts by the government to silence the voices of citizens. It recalls the agreement of the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) with the company Tik-Tok, where the content considered to be reported and blocked "in violation of the rules". According to him, the Parliamentary Commission for Disinformation or the statements of the Prime Minister for an online slander campaign against tourism in Albania can also be considered with a similar purpose.
Educator Ervin Goci listed ten reasons why this decision violates freedom of expression, including the disruption of social connections and the loss of user contributions. He emphasized that the closure violates Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Decision for the entire population, only parents asked
Minister Manastirliu stated that from November 25 to December 22, the government had conducted over 1,300 consultations with parents, where 90% of them supported the closure of TikTok. However, experts criticize the lack of transparency, stressing that the consultations were influenced by the emotions of the tragic event.
"Decisions of this nature have a great impact on the process that must be followed, it must be more comprehensive, studied and widely consulted," - argues Armando Bode, legal expert.
In this context, being a decision that largely affects the population that accesses this platform, experts consider it wrong to rely only on the perceptions of parents, thus calling into question the transparency and the mechanism on which the government was based to come to this decision.
SCiDEV points out that important parties such as the media, civil society, security agencies or parliament were excluded from the discussion, creating a dangerous precedent of censorship for the future.
Even Elvin Luku sees with concern the lack of inclusion of other groups in the consultation.
"The social network has not been restricted to a certain age group, but access has been closed, a serious act of censorship. Neither communication experts, nor media experts, nor journalists nor media executives who are users and experts of the platform are asked. - points out Luku for Citizens.
For Armando Boden, shutting down Tik-Tok is the most drastic measure and should have been the last resort after trying lighter measures. Further, the legal expert specifies that in the case of Albania, we are not dealing with closure, but access blocking, since no one has the authority or authorities to block the platform as a whole except for the parent company.
"What he can do is to block the movement of Albanian 'users' in the territory of the Republic of Albania. It affects users' rights more than Tik-Tok itself," - explains Bode.
Were the demands of the protesting parents met?
Parents' protests after the incident at the "Fan Noli" school demanded security in schools and an increase in the budget for education. However, experts express concern about the use of populist decisions in pre-election periods, endangering freedom of expression and civic involvement.
For Migen Qiraxhiu, one of the organizers of the protest, even though he himself has no sympathy for the Tik-Tok platform, says that this drastic decision was not a request of the protesting parents.
"Of course, a request from parents has been to set filters, adjust the age, but also to follow all the contents that these platforms had" - said Kiraxhi for Citizens.
He sees this decision as a form of government to draw attention from real issues while saying that the procedures followed for decision-making are disturbing, as experts and factual data such as statistics from the platform were ignored.
"They should have told us who Tik-Tok's statistics are, is it a growing or declining platform? What percent of them are minors? How much time do they spend on these platforms? What are the contents? How can content be controlled? Who are the main characters who spread hate speech?" - continued the Tenant.
Besides shutting down Tik-Tok, the only demand met by the parents' protest is the addition of psychologists, social workers and security officers to schools.
The government declared that within two years it would increase their number to 1200 as it promised to set up a "National Network for Online Safety" which would help in the digital education and protection of students.
Read also:
- "TikTok is to blame", the Prime Minister avoids responsibility for the murder of the 14-year-old
- With the children in protest for a big turn in Albania
- A month after the death of Martin Can, no resignation
Erisa Kryeziu has completed higher studies in Journalism and Communication and Master of Science in Public Relations at the University of Tirana. She has been a journalist and project manager at Citizens.al for five years, where she reports on social issues and human rights, especially on issues of rights at work, in education, gender equality, marginalized groups, people with disabilities such as and for environmental issues. At the same time, she works as a project coordinator with a focus on youth and media education. User of new reporting techniques such as "Mobile Journalism" and citizen engagement tools in reporting (ECR-Engage Citizens Journalism).
