Institutions refute Prime Minister Rama's alibi for TikTok's security and cooperation

Albanian institutions deny Prime Minister Edi Rama's claims about the threat posed by the TikTok platform, the lack of cooperation with it, or its possible connection to the murder of teenager Martin Cani, while experts emphasize that the attempt to shut down the social network is more related to elections than security. 

MediaLook contacted police and criminal prosecution institutions, public agencies and NGOs related to TikTok, the platform itself, while also speaking with experts in communication technologies and media to understand how much real basis there is for the "criminalization" of a social network and the negative impact that the latter has on young people and Albanian society.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Information refused to make available a copy of the results of the survey of 65,000 parents conducted in one month, as part of the National Consultation in Schools with Teachers and Parents, which was used by the Albanian government as the main argument supporting the decision to close TikTok. A copy of the document has been requested for a month and has not yet been made available to MediaLook, despite complaints to the Commissioner for the Right to Information.     

"Albania will shut down TikTok!"

On November 13, 2024, as a result of a conflict between several young people, very close to the premises of the Fan Noli school in Tirana, Martin Cani, 14, lost his life after being stabbed by his peer Mario Prelleshaj, while Luis Meçja ended up in the Trauma Hospital with serious wounds, which fortunately did not prove fatal for him.

A week later, after a series of protests and media pressure that also demanded the resignation of the Minister of Education, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that he would launch a national consultation to ask parents whether or not to close TikTok: " Our dilemma as a government is whether we should try and move towards installing filters like other countries, when in fact from all other experiences in Europe or beyond Europe their effectiveness is still very low, while the incentives for violence and teenagers only increase, or whether we should take a drastic measure to completely close TikTok, and why not SnapChat in the Republic of Albania. We have decided to put this dilemma up for broad discussion in all parent communities where all schools will be involved ,"  declared Prime Minister Rama . 

A month later, at the closing meeting of the National Council, where the plan to increase security and reform pre-university education was presented, the head of government announced the closure of TikTok, but surprisingly not of the SnapChat platform, from which it is suspected that young people posted photos before and after the conflict that resulted in the murder of 14-year-old Cani.

" We will close TikTok for a year. Keep in mind that we have already done all our research in terms of technology and it will take us 6-8 weeks starting from the beginning of next year and in a year we will close it completely, for everyone. There will be no TikTok in the Republic of Albania, " said Rama.

The Prime Minister explained that measures to block the " neighborhood bully " were also requested by 90% of the 65,000 parents surveyed in 1,300 meetings organized throughout the country, as part of the National Consultation with teachers and parents. 

The government's stance brought an immediate reaction from the TikTok platform.  In a comment to the Associated Press,  representatives of the platform said that " no evidence has been found that the perpetrator or the victim had an account on TikTok and that a lot of data indicates that videos that may be related to the incident were posted on another platform ," referring to SnapChat. 

"To say that the murder of the teenage student has nothing to do with TikTok, because the conflict was not generated by TikTok, means not understanding the seriousness of the threat that that platform poses to the children and youth of this time, nor the rationale for our decision to take responsibility for responding to that threat,"  Rama replied .

The Prime Minister reiterated that Albania is a democratic country and that this decision was made after 90% of parents requested the banning of TikTok.

But the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States of America and his new approach to delay the closure of the platform in the US, seems to have complicated the Albanian Government's plans. During the World Economic Forum in Davos, Prime Minister Rama, after a meeting with TikTok's senior official Grahn, spoke about reopening TikTok without closing it yet: " A discussion in a constructive spirit, where we set cooperation milestones in the coming weeks and months to ensure the reopening of TikTok at the most reasonable time, but of course with all the necessary guarantees in the absence of which we are forced to close access to the platform soon ", - announced Rama.

 

"Criminalization" of the platform! TikTok: Young people involved in the conflict have no account; Police: Complaints about TikTok the same as Facebook and Instagram

After more than two months since the tragic event of Martin Cani, the Tirana Prosecution Office has not had an answer about whether it has managed to identify any elements that link the event to the social network TikTok, affirming only the fact that " the case is still in preliminary investigations that are protected by investigative secrecy ", while adding that criminal proceedings have been registered for the offenses of " Murder in other qualifying circumstances " and " Unlicensed production, possession, purchase or sale of cold weapons ".

Meanwhile, TikTok itself, when asked by MediaLook about the conflict, claims that “ we have found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim in the tragic incident in Tirana had an account on TikTok .” Representatives of this social network have sent us several articles from Albanian media, adding that “ some reports indicate that posts on social networks about school stabbing incidents in Albania were happening on another platform ,” referring to SnapChat, on which the government has not taken any position.

MediaLook officially approached the General Directorate of Police and the General Prosecutor's Office to obtain information regarding the number of criminal charges related to conflicts on social networks and their specification according to each network, but this data does not exist in their registers, but only according to criminal offenses.

And while the General Prosecutor's Office has only provided a formal response, the Cybercrime Investigation at the General Directorate of Police reports that the number of criminal offenses in the entire online sphere, including social networks, reaches 978 criminal offenses registered in 2024, almost twice as high as in 2022 and 2023, with 501 and 456 reports respectively. In these cases, investigations for "forgery and computer intrusions" predominate, compared to "fraud" and "child pornography".

MediaLook has unofficially obtained from the State Police the number of complaints that citizens make on the 24/7 hotline for the last three months, September-December 2024. From this data, it results that the number of complaints for social networks is higher for Facebook with 19 cases for data storage, compared to 16 cases on Instagram and 16 complaints on TikTok, of which the police have been engaged by closing 6 profiles.

AMA & CRCA: The platform quickly removes harmful videos! TikTok: Safety and mental health a priority, we have 6 thousand moderators in Europe; The government "loses" the survey!

Prime Minister Edi Rama based his decision to close the “neighborhood alley” on a survey conducted with 65 thousand parents, 90% of whom, according to him, had requested this measure from the Albanian government. But although 30 days have passed since MediaLook’s request and the activation of the Commissioner for the Right to Information, it seems as if the Albanian government has lost the survey. MediaLook’s letter, in which a copy of this document is requested, has for more than a month become an institutional ping-pong between the MIA – the Prime Minister’s Office and, most recently, the Ministry of Education, which forward the request for information to each other.  

And while the game of "who has it who has it" continues to find the document cited by the prime minister, Albanian institutions and organizations that collaborate with TikTok do not share the same position as the head of government regarding the lack of security filters and cooperation with the platform.

The Audiovisual Media Authority, the only public agency that has a cooperative relationship with TikTok, announces that 98.2% of the videos reported by this institution were removed in the last six months of 2024: “ During the period August-December 2024, a total of 291 contents were reported on the platform and of these 286 contents were removed, being considered closed after review ”, – highlights the AMA. Asked about TikTok’s reaction time from the moment of reporting, the AMA explains that “ the reaction time from TikTok, from the moment of sending the reports until receiving a response on whether or not to block the material, is on average one day ”.

Meanwhile, the head of CRCA, Altin Hazizaj, an organization that, within the framework of the "isigurt.al" platform, has cooperation with the largest platforms, especially Meta and TikTok, emphasizes that cooperation is at the highest levels when it comes to issues related to online child protection:  With both platforms we have had very positive cooperation in all aspects, with TikTok it is even more specific, as during the past year we have agreed to organize regional roundtables with professionals from education, social protection, child protection, police, etc., regarding the way TikTok considers complaints from us as a trusted partner, how the system works, how you can complain and how children can be protected .

According to Hazizaj, this cooperation with TikTok has been going on for three years, while with META, which includes Facebook and Instagram, it is even earlier. Hazizaj adds that the platforms themselves are also interested in the filters being at the highest levels possible due to the preservation of their reputation: “ …protecting children from any form of violence, online harm, exploitation and sexual violence is a common interest, because, at the end of the day, the platforms do not want to have a bad reputation, such as that the platform is used for sexual exploitation of children, which, without a doubt, gives great importance to the cooperation between NGOs with the global platforms TikTok, META and Snap Chat ”, – concludes Hazizaj.

On the other hand, TikTok platform officials in response to MediaLook's interest in the safety and mental health of young people state that " keeping our community safe is a priority for us, so we invest significant resources in content moderation. We have more than 6,000 moderators in Europe, including Albanian speakers ." TikTok explains that " during the last quarter analyzed in 2024, over 95% of content that violates policies on safety, civility, mental health and behavior, as well as the safety of young people, was proactively removed, before anyone reported it ."

For the director of ACROMAX Albania, Aldor Nini, a company specializing in content filtering on digital platforms, TikTok is one of the companies with the highest percentage of filtering problematic materials: "  In the first quarter of 2024 alone, TikTok has blocked over 14 thousand videos automatically due to problematic content, without anyone reporting them. This shows that the system and the filter work. These videos represented 91% of problematic materials and only 9% were not caught. This is one of the highest percentages I have seen in the history of filtering problematic materials on a platform ," Nini analyzes.

Communication experts: Closing TikTok for election campaign! Dangerous precedent that violates freedom of expression   

More than an attempt to increase the platform's protective filters for harmful content that affects the health and safety of Albanian youth, media and communication experts see the decision to shut down TikTok as an attempt to crack down on an uncontrollable network that favors competing political groups in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Për pedagogun e Departamentit të Gazetarisë dhe Komunikimit, Ervin Goci, vetë koha dhe nxitimi kur propozohet mbyllja e TikTok, nuk mund të mos ketë lidhje me fushatën zgjedhore: “…është e qartë që kemi të bëjmë me një manovër elektoraliste tipike, që bëhet me një synim konkret dhe praktik që është pengimi i kryerjes së fushatës nga aktorë konkurrent, me performancë më të mirë dhe jashtë kontrollit të mekanizmave dhe strukturave e aparateve që përdor pushteti për të ndikuar komunikimin virtual. Sipas Gocit “TikTok është ende një platformë në gjendje “të egër” dhe ka një mënyrë funksionimi që nuk kontrollohet dot nga një dorë, por është e lidhur shumë me individin. Kemi të bëjmë me një media të pakontrolluar dhe këtu qëndron dhe fuqia e saj”.

Ndërsa eksperti i komunikimit Erlis Çela e konsideron vendimin si një masë represive ndaj mediave dhe platformave të komunikimit: “Logjika që çon në vendime për ti vënë drynin mediave apo mbyllur platformat e rrjeteve sociale, është antidemokratike dhe ngjason me qasjen e vendeve totalitare. Së dyti, kjo vendimmarrje nuk është mbështetur në asnjë studim shkencor serioz, analiza po konsultim me ekspertët, studiuesit dhe njohës të fushës”. Sipas pedagogut Çela kemi të bëjmë me një “vendimmarrje e cila bazohet në një qasje populiste dhe logjikën e manipulimit të publikut”.

Drejtuesja e organizatës SCiDEV, Blerajna Bino ngre shqetësimin se një vendim i marrë në këtë mënyrë rrezikon të kthehet në një precedent të rrezikshëm për censurën e platformave: “Deri më tani nuk është publikuar asnjë dokument zyrtar, vendim formal apo raport i hollësishëm që të justifikojë në mënyrë ligjore dhe procedurale mbylljen e TikTok-ut. Kjo sjell paqartësi mbi bazën ligjore, si dhe krijon një precedent të rrezikshëm për mbyllje apo kufizim të platformave të tjera në të ardhmen”. Sipas Binos konsultimi ka qenë i paplotë, madje nuk është publikuar as raporti i konsultimit me prindërit. “Një vendim me një impakt kaq të madh mbi lirinë e shprehjes”, – thekson studiuesja, “kërkon detyrimisht një konsultim të gjerë, në mënyrë që të shmangen vendimmarrjet arbitrare”.

Ndërkaq, edhe Kryetarja e Komisionit të Edukimit dhe Medias në Parlamentin e Shqipërisë, Ina Zhupa ngre shqetësimin se mbyllja e rrjetit social do të cenonte të drejtën kushtetuese të lirisë së shprehjes. Duke sjellë në analogji rastin në SHBA, Zhupa thekson se “aty diskutimi është zhvilluar në Senat, Kongres dhe ka vendimmarrje të Gjykatës Supreme, ndërsa në Shqipëri diskuton, vendos dhe shpall vetëm kryeministri Rama”. Për Kryetaren e Komisionit të Edukimit dhe Medias, pas vendimmarrjes së Presidentit Trump, shanset për mbylljen e TikTok janë ekstremisht të ulta.

Following the executive order signed by President Trump to extend the deadline for the change of ownership of the TikTok platform in the US, Prime Minister Rama's public discourse has also been low-key. The last time Prime Minister Rama spoke about the closure of TikTok was during an event at the Department of Journalism and Communication. The head of government said that closing the platform is the only solution for the time being, while adding that the dialogue with the platform continues and that the decision may be reviewed once the platform presents suggestions to guarantee security and avoid risks for users.

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