The Associated Press he says that in Albania (population: 2.402.113), "children make up the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to domestic researchers."
But "Albania's prime minister said on Saturday that the government would shut down the TikTok video service for a year, accusing it of inciting violence and intimidation, especially among children" after "the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teenager from a fight that started on TikTok.”
There has certainly been growing concern from parents following reports of children taking knives and other objects to school to use in fights or bullying cases promoted by stories they see on TikTok.
TikTok's operations in China, where its parent company is based company, they are different, since the service promotes how children can study better, how to preserve nature... and so on," according to Rama.
Albania is of course too small a country to impose on TikTok one change in its algorithm so that it does not promote "the reproduction of the endless inferno of hatred, violence, and intimidation," Rama's office said in an emailed response to The Associated Press' request for comment. Rama's office said that in China, TikTok "prevents children from falling into this abyss".
TikTok told The Associated Press that it “did not find data that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts, and multiple reports actually confirmed that the videos that led to this incident were posted on another platform, and not on TikTok…”.
