Xavier Radio Ug News 24 7
Social media platform TikTok is back in Albania, after a year-long ban expired this month.
The case has sparked questions over online safety as well as censorship and highlighted the complexity of imposing such restrictions in a politically fragmented region.
The ban of the short video sharing app was brought in last year, following the killing of a teenage boy, reportedly linked to online bullying.
The government says TikTok has now tightened safety measures sufficiently.
By allowing TikTok in Albania again, the country bucks a broader global backlash against social media companies over alleged harms to young people.
Australia has banned under-16s from such platforms, and other nations are considering similar restrictions.
But the case is more complicated in Albania, a country hit by unrest over political corruption and where the ruling party is in an unprecedented fourth term in power.
Prime Minister Edi Rama’s government imposed the ban just weeks before parliamentary elections last year.
And opposition parties have accused the authorities of doing it to silence them.
The government said in a statement, the “only goal” had been to protect children.
TikTok has declined to comment.
Although the ban is now lifted, activists are worried.
Here’s Isa Myzyraj, president of the Association of Albanian Journalists.
“This (banning TikTok) will create a dangerous example for the future, both for this government and for the governments that will come after it, which could exploit this example to block other social networks or even force a total internet shutdown whenever the government chooses.”
However – experts say the ban actually had limited impact.
Brenton Benja, founder of Geek Room Albania who tracked the ban, said people simply used tools like VPNs to get around it.
The government also acknowledged in its statement, because of technological hurdles, a full ban had proved “impossible.”
www.sabcnews.com, https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/tiktok-returns-to-albania-after-government-ban-ends/
