(Bloomberg) — Albania’s government banned TikTok for at least a year, Albanian Daily News reported on Saturday, citing comments by Prime Minister Edi Rama to a gathering of teachers and parents in the capital Tirana.
It will take six to eight weeks, starting in January, to completely shut down the short-form video app, Rama said, according to the news portal. “TikTok will not exist in the Republic of Albania,” he was cited as saying.
Rama’s social media clampdown follows the murder of a 14-year-old boy by a schoolmate last month, an incident that sparked protests across the Balkan country. The suspected attacker shared images of his injuries on Snapchat after the incident as well as photos of himself holding a knife in the days preceding the incident.
The decision to ban TikTok follows warnings by Rama and amid concerns in other countries over privacy and security when downloading content of the platform owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd.
TikTok may be outlawed in the US after President Joe Biden signed a law in April, stipulating the video app will be banned over national security concerns if the owner doesn’t sell it to an American buyer.
Beijing’s export rules prevent Chinese companies from selling their software algorithms and ByteDance has said it will not sell the app.