Government shuts down Tik-Tok, CNN: Opposition against the decision, announces protest on March 15

The Albanian cabinet decided on Thursday to shut down TikTok for 12 months, blaming the popular video-sharing platform for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children.

Education Minister Ogerta Manastirliu said that officials are in contact with TikTok about installing filters such as parental control, age verification, and including the Albanian language in the application.

The cabinet initiated the measure last year after a teenager stabbed another teenager to death in November following an argument that began on TikTok.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the government's decision.

When Prime Minister Edi Rama said in December that they intended to shut down the social media platform, TikTok demanded “urgent clarity from the Albanian government” about the case of the stabbed teenager.

On Thursday, Rama said they were in a "positive dialogue with the company" and that TikTok would visit the country soon to offer "a series of measures to increase safety for children."

The company said it had "found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had a TikTok account and multiple reports have in fact confirmed that the videos leading up to this incident were being posted on another platform, not TikTok."

Albanian children make up the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to researchers.

There have been growing concerns from Albanian parents following reports of children being inspired by content on social media to pick up knives at school, or cases of bullying promoted by stories they see on TikTok.

Authorities have increased police presence in some schools and have put in place other measures including training programs for teachers, students and their parents.

The opposition has not agreed with the TikTok shutdown and has set March 15 for a protest against the measure. It said the ban was "an act of intolerance, fear and terror against free thought and expression."

TikTok, which is operated by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, has faced questions in many countries and was briefly offline in the United States recently to comply with a law requiring ByteDance to remove the app or be banned in the US.

The app suspended its services in the US for less than a day before restoring service after assurances from Trump that he would postpone its ban.

Earlier this week, the UK's data protection watchdog said it was investigating how the app uses the personal information of 13 to 17-year-olds to provide them with content recommendations.

The Information Commissioner's Office said there were growing concerns about how social media platforms were using data generated from children's online activity to power their recommendation algorithms and the potential for young people to see inappropriate or harmful content as a result. CNN