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It’s not just Washington or Bucharest. Albania is coming down on TikTok with a fresh ban — a move that could draw scrutiny from Brussels as the country works to clear the bar on civil rights protections to join the European Union.
Prime Minister Edi Rama announced in late December that he would “block TikTok for one year.” His decision was fueled by outrage over the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old in November following a series of arguments the teen had on social media. After the stabbing, videos surfaced on TikTok showing young people expressing support for the killing.
The decision is based on a “very disturbing pattern” on TikTok, Rama told POLITICO in written comments — and taps into growing concerns about how social media impacts the mental health and safety of youngsters.
But the incoming ban has raised eyebrows among opposition politicians and human rights watchers.
“It’s a pure electoral act and [an] abuse of power to suppress freedom of speech in Albania,” said Ina Zhupa, an Albanian opposition MP.
Ruslan Stefanovlan, program director at the the Sofia-based Center for the Study of Democracy, said scapegoating TikTok for the tragedy “is a typical populist move.” The lack of due process or solid evidence underpinning the planned ban is emblematic of the country’s systemic corruption and institutional weaknesses, Stefanovlan said.
A spokesperson for TikTok said it had found “no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts, and multiple reports have in fact confirmed [that] videos leading up to these incidents were being posted on another platform, not TikTok.”
The planned TikTok ban is likely to draw scrutiny in Brussels, where European Union officials are assessing Albania’s respect for EU standards on rule of law and fundamental freedoms.
A European Commission spokesperson said in a statement that the EU executive had “taken note” of Albania’s plan to block TikTok and called it “a sovereign decision.”
“In the EU,” the statement stressed, “any ban of digital services can be considered as a last resort and in relation to an infringement of the transparency and accountability obligations of the law, not in response to individual issues and pieces of online content.”
The EU is conducting its own investigation under the Digital Services Act, “including in relation to the assessment and mitigation of risk for the physical and mental well-being of users,” the spokesperson added.
The European Commission is currently evaluating the rule of law and civil rights in Albania with an eye toward its accession to the EU — one of Rama’s biggest political goals.
Albania has been an EU candidate country since 2014 and formally opened its accession process in 2022, with a first round of negotiations taking place last October. Rama is aiming for full EU membership by 2030.
Rama insisted that the TikTok ban had not been provoked by a “one-off incident;” was aligned with what the vast majority of parents wanted; and was part of a wider plan to make schools safer that was developed together with schools, teachers and parents.
Rama’s office did not provide technical details on how and when the ban will be enforced. The prime minister said in December that his government had done “all the technological research” and would need six to eight weeks to ensure that TiKTok is no longer accessible in Albania.
“Freedom of speech and marketing opportunities will not cease to exist without TikTok,” Rama told POLITICO.
