Albania, the first European country to ban TikTok

BarcelonaIt all began in November 2024, when a fourteen-year-old boy was stabbed to death by a classmate in front of his school in Tirana. The murder sparked a wave of support for social media from young people who validated the crime and incited hatred. To address the issue and what had already become a public debate across the country, the Albanian government made a surprising announcement: it would ban TikTok for a year.

The country's prime minister, socialist Edi Rama, justified the measure by citing the findings of a consultation according to which 90% of the 65,000 parents called for the closure of the platform, which has 1.53 million users in the country (with a population of 2.4 million). For the prime minister, the measure counteracts the adverse effects the app has on the safety and mental health of young people.

The ban came into effect in mid-March, making Albania the first country in Europe to prohibit the platform. Until now, other European states had introduced restrictions on minors accessing the Chinese app, made efforts to moderate content, or even limited the app's installation to the phones of civil servants and public sector workers for cybersecurity reasons. But Albania's case is different. "It's a total ban, applicable to any citizen of any age," Orkidea Xhaferaj, an expert at the Science and Innovation Center for Development in Albania, told ARA.

The measure has put some companies doing business through TikTok on alert. Xhaferaj maintains that the decision is hasty and poorly founded, as no study has been conducted to prove that young Albanians are at risk. "The ban has legal, social, and ethical implications that cannot be taken lightly," says this expert. "It must be justified with studies and expert opinions; it is not enough to have conversations with families and teachers, who are involved and may have a biased opinion."

Sergio de Juan-Creix, a digital law expert at the Open University of Catalonia, also questions the basis of the decision. In statements to ARA, he says that it is rare for the government to issue a decree to ban a social network, since "normally these decisions come from the competent authorities," who can restrict or regulate how various products and services should be marketed.

A controversial decision in the pre-election period

This has angered the opposition, which considers the ban a populist move, as it was implemented just two months before the parliamentary elections scheduled for this Sunday. The leader of the Democratic Party of Albania and Rama's main competitor in the elections, Sali Berisha, accuses the Social Democratic leader of restricting freedom of expression on TikTok, which has become a crucial tool for disseminating political messages, especially for newly created and less well-represented parties, which rely on it.

In these parliamentary elections, Socialist Edi Rama is seeking an unprecedented fourth consecutive term. The current prime minister's party is leading the polls with 49% of the vote, despite the corruption scandals against him, while polls predict Berisha will garner 35%. But the results are very difficult to predict, as this is the first time that Albanians living abroad, estimated at 2 million, will be able to vote. A very high number considering Albania has a population of 2.4 million.

Rama's campaign emblem is the promise that Albania will join the European Union by 2030. And, in fact, during his term, Rama has taken steps to be viewed favorably by Brussels. In 2023, for example, signed an agreement with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to allow irregular migrants to be held in centers located on Albanian territoryHowever, several experts are skeptical of the timeline proposed by the current prime minister, given the difficulties his Balkan neighbors are facing in joining the European club.

His opponent in these elections, the octogenarian Sali Berisha, was the country's first president elected at the polls after the fall of the communist regime. His legacy, marked by an aggressive economic opening following the dictatorship and by achievements such as Albania's entry into NATO in 2005, has also been tarnished by numerous accusations of corruption, repression, and nepotism.

Education, the Root of the Problem

Be that as it may, the TikTok ban has served to further heighten the debate over adolescent access to and control of social media. In a recent report, researcher Daniel Prroni argues that the measure fails to address the real challenge of young people's social media use and could even exacerbate its effects. Examples of similar cases, the report states, show that these types of bans can be easily circumvented—for example, through a VPN—and this results in access being granted to those with greater digital literacy, while local institutions are unable to hold the platform accountable or request the removal of problematic content.

Xhaferaj explains that only a third of the Albanian population has digital literacy, so many families are unable to properly supervise their children's device use. What should be addressed, according to this expert, is a comprehensive political approach to this issue that takes into account education and raising awareness among young people. "But this is slower and more complex," she acknowledges.