TikTok: Albania bans app for one year while Trump mulls a stay of execution
TikTok faces an uncertain 2025
Albania has imposed a one-year ban on TikTok in response to the killing of a 14-year-old schoolboy by a fellow pupil, which prime minister Edi Rama attributed to social media influence, particularly TikTok.
The ban will come into effect early next year, and is part of a wider school safety strategy.
The Albanian government believes that social media platforms, particularly TikTok, are fuelling youth violence.
"In China, TikTok promotes how students can take courses, how to protect nature, how to keep traditions, but on the TikTok outside China we see only scum and mud. Why do we need this?", Rama said, as reported by the BBC.
"For one year, we'll be completely shutting it down for everyone. There will be no TikTok in Albania.”
TikTok is already banned in India, Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan and Somalia.
TikTok said there was “no evidence” that the children had TikTok accounts or that its platform had played a part in the violence.
TikTok also faces a ban in the US, where the Senate voted heavily in favour of blocking the app earlier in December, unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance agrees to sell the popular short video app to a US company by 19th January.
The company’s legal team appealed the potential ban saying it violates the First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech and expression. It also pointed to a lack of specific evidence to support the national security concerns raised by the US government over possible abuse by China.
Many experts agree that a ban would be unconstitutional, and that it would create a dangerous precedent by allowing the US government to bypass First Amendment concerns by simply invoking "national security."
On 18th December, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear TikTok’s request for an injunction to stop the ban going into effect, calling for both sides to present oral arguments by 10th January.
However, president-elect Trump indicated his support for allowing TikTok to continue operating in the US, at least temporarily. At a rally in Arizona, Trump said the app had played a role in the success of his presidential campaign on the platform.
But any attempt to reverse the decision would go against the decision of the Senate, which voted for a ban by a large majority.
A tense new year for ByteDance comes as several European countries have implemented restrictions on social media use for children. Australia has gone a step further by approving a complete social media ban for children under 16.
Several French families are also suing TikTok, claiming the platform's algorithm exposed their teenage children to harmful content, ultimately leading to the suicide of two 15-year-olds.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is investigating the company over its suspected failure to limit election interference in the Romanian presidential election.