Albanian institutions challenge Prime Minister Edi Rama’s claims about the threat posed by the TikTok platform, its lack of cooperation, 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 to security.
MediaLook contacted police and prosecutorial institutions, public agencies, and NGOs linked to TikTok, as well as the platform itself. It also spoke with communication technology and media experts to understand the real basis behind the “criminalization” of a social network and the negative impact it allegedly has on young people and Albanian society.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Media and Information Agency (MIA) refused to provide a copy of the survey results from 65,000 parents conducted over the course of a month, as part of the National Consultation in schools with teachers and parents. This survey was the main argument used by the Albanian government to justify the decision to ban TikTok. The document has been requested for a month and has yet to be made available to MediaLook, despite complaints filed with the Commissioner for the Right to Information.
“Albania will ban TikTok!”
On November 13, 2024, as a result of a conflict between several young people near the premises of Fan Noli School in Tirana, 14-year-old Martin Cani lost his life after being stabbed by his peer, Mario Prelleshaj, while Luis Meçja was taken to the Trauma Hospital with serious injuries that, fortunately, were not fatal.
A week later, following a series of protests and media pressure—including calls for the resignation of the Minister of Education—Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the launch of a national consultation to ask parents whether TikTok should be banned:
“Our dilemma as a government is whether we should also move toward implementing filters, like other countries have, even though experiences in Europe and beyond show that their effectiveness remains very low, while violence and adolescent-related incidents continue to rise. Or, should we take a drastic measure and completely ban TikTok—and possibly even Snapchat—in the Republic of Albania? We have decided to put this dilemma up for broad discussion within all parent communities, with the involvement of all schools,” Rama declared.
A month later, at the final meeting of the National Consultation—where the plan for increased security and reform in pre-university education was presented—the Prime Minister announced the ban of TikTok, but, surprisingly, not Snapchat, despite suspicions that young people had used it to post photos before and after the conflict that led to Cani’s murder.
“We will shut down TikTok for one year. Keep in mind that we have already conducted all our technological research, and it will take us 6-8 weeks from the beginning of next year. For one year, we will completely shut it down for everyone. TikTok will no longer exist in the Republic of Albania,” Rama stated.
The Prime Minister explained the measures for blocking the “local thug,” a move that was also requested by 90% of the 65,000 parents surveyed in 1,300 meetings organized across the country as part of the National Consultation with teachers and parents.
The government’s position prompted an immediate reaction from the TikTok platform. In a comment to the Associated Press, platform representatives stated, “No evidence has been found that the perpetrator of the murder or the victim had TikTok accounts, and much of the data shows that videos potentially related to the incident were posted on another platform,” referring to SnapChat.
To say that the murder of the adolescent student has no connection to TikTok, because the conflict wasn’t generated by TikTok, means failing to understand both the seriousness of the threat that platform poses to children and youth today and the rationale behind our decision to take responsibility for reacting to that threat, replied Rama.
The Prime Minister reiterated that Albania is a democratic country, and this decision was made after 90% of parents requested the ban on TikTok.
However, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States and his new approach to pushing for the platform’s closure in the U.S. seems to have complicated the Albanian Government’s plans. During the World Economic Forum in Davos, after a meeting with senior TikTok official Grahn, Prime Minister Rama spoke about the reopening of TikTok without having closed it yet: “A discussion with a constructive spirit, where we set cooperation benchmarks for the upcoming weeks and months to ensure the reopening of TikTok at the most reasonable time, but certainly with all necessary guarantees, without which we will be forced to soon close access to the platform,” Rama announced.
“Criminalization” of the platform! TikTok: The young people involved in the conflict do not have accounts; Police: Complaints about TikTok are the same as those for Facebook and Instagram
More than two months after the tragic incident involving Martin Cani, the Prosecutor’s Office of Tirana has not provided an answer regarding whether it has identified any elements linking the event to the TikTok social network. It has only stated that “the case is still under preliminary investigation, which is protected by investigative secrecy,” while adding that criminal proceedings have been registered for the offenses “Murder under qualifying circumstances” and “Production, possession, purchase, or sale of cold weapons without permission.”
Meanwhile, TikTok itself, when asked by MediaLook about the conflict, states that “we have not found any evidence that the perpetrator or the victim in the tragic incident in Tirana had accounts on TikTok.” Representatives of the platform sent us several articles from Albanian media, adding that “multiple reports suggest that social media postings around school stabbing incidents in Albania were occurring on another platform” referring to Snapchat, for which the government has not taken any stance.
MediaLook officially reached out to the General Directorate of Police and the General Prosecutor’s Office for information on the number of reports regarding criminal offenses related to conflicts on social networks, specifying them according to each network. However, this data does not exist in their records, but only according to criminal offenses.
While the General Prosecutor’s Office only provided a formal response, the Cyber Crime Investigation Unit within the General Directorate of Police informed us that the number of criminal offenses across the entire online sphere, including social networks, reached 978 criminal cases registered in 2024—almost twice as many as in 2022 and 2023, with 501 and 456 reports, respectively. In these cases, investigations for “fraud and computer interventions” dominate, in comparison to “fraud” and “child pornography.”
MediaLook has unofficially obtained information from the State Police regarding the number of reports citizens have made via the 24/7 helpline for the last quarter (September-December 2024). According to this data, the highest number of reports for social networks was for Facebook, with 19 cases regarding data protection, compared to 16 cases for Instagram and 16 reports for TikTok. Of these, the police intervened by shutting down 6 profiles.
AMA & CRCA: The platform quickly removes harmful videos! TikTok: Mental health and safety are a priority, we have 6,000 moderators in Europe; The government “loses” the survey!
Prime Minister Edi Rama supported his decision to shut down the “street thug” based on a survey conducted with 65,000 parents, 90% of whom, according to him, had requested this measure from the Albanian government. However, despite 30 days passing since MediaLook’s request and the involvement of the Commissioner for the Right to Information, it seems that the Albanian government has “lost” the survey. MediaLook’s letter, in which a copy of this document is requested, has been bounced back in an institutional ping-pong between the Media and Information Agency (MIA), the Prime Minister’s Office, and, more recently, the Ministry of Education, who keep redirecting the request for information to each other.
While the “who has it, who doesn’t” game continues regarding the search for the document cited by the Prime Minister, Albanian institutions and organizations working with TikTok do not share the same position as the head of the government on the lack of safety filters and cooperation with the platform.
The Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA), the only public agency with a collaboration agreement with TikTok, reports that 98.2% of videos reported by the institution have been removed in the last six months of 2024:
“Between August-December 2024, a total of 291 contents were reported on the platform, and of these, 286 were removed, being considered closed after review,” says AMA. When asked about TikTok’s response time after a report, AMA explains that “the response time from TikTok, from the moment the reports are sent until a reply is received regarding the blocking of the material, is on average one day.”
Meanwhile, Altin Hazizaj, the head of CRCA, an organization that cooperates with major platforms, especially Meta and TikTok, within the “isigurt.al” platform, emphasizes that the cooperation is at its highest levels concerning online child protection issues:
“We have had extremely positive cooperation with both platforms in all aspects, and with TikTok, it is even more specific because last year we agreed to organize regional roundtables with professionals from education, social protection, child protection, the police, etc., to discuss how TikTok handles complaints from us as trusted partners, how the system works, how to report, and how to protect children.”
According to Hazizaj, this cooperation with TikTok has been ongoing for three years, while with Meta, which includes Facebook and Instagram, it started even earlier. Hazizaj adds that the platforms themselves are interested in maintaining high-level filters for the sake of preserving their reputation:
“The protection of children from all forms of violence, online harm, exploitation, and sexual abuse is a common interest because, at the end of the day, platforms don’t want to have a bad reputation, such as being used for the sexual exploitation of children, which, without a doubt, highlights the importance of cooperation between NGOs and global platforms like TikTok, META, and Snapchat,” concludes Hazizaj.
On the other hand, officials from the TikTok platform, in response to MediaLook’s inquiry regarding the safety and mental health of young people, state that “the safety of our community is a priority for us, that’s why we invest significant resources in content moderation. We have more than 6,000 moderators in Europe, including Albanian speakers.” TikTok clarifies that “for the last period we have evaluated (q3) in 2024, over 95% of content that violates safety policies, civility, mental health, behavior, and the safety of young people was proactively removed before anyone reported it.”
For Aldor Nini, the director of ACROMAX Albania, a company specializing in filtering content on digital platforms, TikTok is one of the companies with the highest percentage of filtering problematic content:
“Only in the first quarter of 2024, TikTok automatically blocked over 14,000 videos due to problematic content, without anyone reporting them. This shows that the system and filter are working. These videos represented 91% of problematic material, and only 9% were not caught. This is one of the highest percentages I have seen in the history of filtering problematic material on a platform,” analyzes Nini.
Communication Experts: Closing TikTok for Election Campaign! A Dangerous Precedent that Undermines Freedom of Expression
More than an Attempt to Increase Protective Filters for Harmful Content Affecting the Health and Safety of Albanian Youth, Communication and Media Experts See the Decision to Close TikTok as an Effort to Strike at an Uncontrolled Network that Favors Political Rival Groups in Upcoming Parliamentary Elections
For Ervin Goci, a professor at the Department of Journalism and Communication, the timing and urgency when the closure of TikTok is proposed cannot be unrelated to the election campaign: “It is clear that we are dealing with a typical electoral maneuver, with a concrete and practical goal, which is to hinder the campaign of competing actors with better performance and outside the control of the mechanisms, structures, and apparatuses that the power uses to influence virtual communication. According to Goci, “TikTok is still a platform in a ‘wild’ state and has a way of functioning that cannot be controlled by a single hand, but is deeply tied to the individual. We are dealing with an uncontrolled media, and this is where its power lies.”
Communication expert Erlis Çela considers the decision as a repressive measure against media and communication platforms: “The logic that leads to decisions to lock down media or close social network platforms is undemocratic and resembles the approach of totalitarian countries. Secondly, this decision has not been supported by any serious scientific study, analysis, or consultation with experts, researchers, and field specialists.” According to Professor Çela, this is a “decision based on a populist approach and the logic of manipulating the public.”
Blerjana Bino, the leader of the SCiDEV organization, raises concerns that such a decision could set a dangerous precedent for censorship of platforms: “So far, no official document, formal decision, or detailed report has been published to legally and procedurally justify the closure of TikTok. This brings uncertainty regarding the legal basis and creates a dangerous precedent for the closure or limitation of other platforms in the future.” According to Bino, the consultation was incomplete, and even the report of the consultation with parents has not been published. “A decision with such a significant impact on freedom of expression,” emphasizes the researcher, “requires a wide consultation to avoid arbitrary decision-making.”
Meanwhile, the Chairwoman of the Education and Media Committee in the Albanian Parliament, Ina Zhupa, also raises concerns that the closure of the social network would violate the constitutional right to freedom of expression. Drawing an analogy with the U.S. case, Zhupa notes, “In the U.S., the discussion took place in the Senate, Congress, and had decisions from the Supreme Court, while in Albania, only Prime Minister Rama discusses, decides, and announces it.” For the Chairwoman of the Education and Media Committee, following President Trump’s decision, the chances of TikTok being shut down are extremely low.
After the executive order signed by President Trump to extend the deadline for ownership changes of the TikTok platform in the U.S., Prime Minister Rama’s public discourse has been more subdued. 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 moment, while adding that dialogue with the platform continues, and the decision may be reconsidered once the platform presents suggestions to ensure safety and avoid risks for users.
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