Although the Council of Ministers approved the decision in March to close the TikTok platform to minimize violence between students in schools, it seems that almost a year after this measure was taken, episodes of violence have not decreased, while experts say that this served more to avoid institutional responsibility and censorship during the election campaign.
During the first three weeks of December 2025 alone, three different episodes of violence between students were recorded in several major cities of the country, where groups of teenagers attacked each other very close to school premises in Saranda, Shkodra and Durrës. In one case, the tragic result was the loss of life.
Apparently, the Albanian government's decision in March 2025 to close the TikTok platform has not had an impact on minimizing cases of violence in Albanian public education institutions.
Blerjana Bino, director of the Science and Innovation Center for Development (SCiDEV), told BIRN that shutting down TikTok to minimize youth violence in schools was not actually a solution to the problem, but a transfer of responsibility from all actors to technology.
"We blame TikTok for getting out of the situation," Bino told BIRN.
“This gives you an illusion of security and a justifiable narrative that, in the face of a major disaster like the murder of a young man by his peer at school, it seems like the government is doing something to resolve the situation,” Blerjana Bino told BIRN.
Although the decision to close TikTok was initially criticized by a number of civil society organizations and freedom of expression activists, Prime Minister Rama insisted at the time that his decision was not "hasty", but was based on a survey of around 65,000 parents, 90 percent of whom had requested the closure of TikTok on the pretext that the phenomenon of violence that had its roots in social networks needed to be combated.
The head of the organization Qëndresa Qytetare, an organization that has been dealing for years with strengthening the role of citizens, as well as with education problems, also told BIRN that the closure of TikTok did not yield the result for which it was initiated.
"With the increase in cases of violence in schools, the closure of TikTok showed that it was an ineffective measure in preventing violence among minors," Rigels Xhemollari told BIRN.
"I suspect that for the period that just ended, there was more of an effect of controlling electoral content in the elections," Xhemollari admitted.
Similarly, Blerjana Bino emphasized that the closure of TikTok, in addition to not solving the problem of violence, also damaged the parties' communication with citizens during the 2025 election campaign, violating democratic spaces for communication.
"As long as there was no evidence-based assessment to justify the decision to close the platform, this leaves room to deduce that there were other goals and the safety of young people was used as an excuse," said Bino.
Experts admitted to BIRN that violence against youth is in fact a complex social phenomenon and there is no single solution, such as closing down certain platforms.
Xhemollari told BIRN that the Civic Resistance has proposed to the Ministry of Education several measures that could really contribute to reducing the level of violence in educational institutions.
"We have proposed an 8-to-4 schedule for public schools, as a measure to keep minors under supervision and control during the time they are outside parental supervision," said Xhemollari.
According to Xhemollari, this in turn increases the opportunity for sports, cultural and individual engagement of young people, away from the offers of criminal and drug contingents.
Expert Bino also believes that emphasis should be placed on the primary role of the school and the entire ecosystem of public and private education in the country.
“Improving security, improving the school schedule and implementing the concept of the school as a community center, where children and young people can engage in sports and educational activities, could be a long-term solution,” Bino told BIRN.
She added that parent-teacher relationships also need to be further strengthened, so that there is continuous dialogue for timely response and problem solving, as well as to strengthen the capacities of teachers and psychologists in schools. /BIRN/
