Just when we thought TikTok would be a distant memory for Albanians, it seems things are changing. Prime Minister Edi Rama, during a meeting in Davos with Christine Grahn, TikTok's Director of Government Relations and Public Policy for Europe, has opened talks for the "return" (although it has not yet been closed) of the platform in Albania.
In a post on social media, Rama explained that the concerns that led to the decision to temporarily close access to TikTok were openly discussed with Grahn. The meeting focused on ways the platform can address these problems, setting out several points of cooperation for the coming weeks and months. The goal? Reopening the platform once security and control standards have been guaranteed.
"A completely open and constructive discussion, where we set several milestones of cooperation in the coming weeks and months, to ensure the reopening of TikTok at the most reasonable time, but of course with all the necessary guarantees, in the absence of which we are forced to close access to the platform soon," the prime minister wrote on Facebook.
The decision to close TikTok was initially proposed by Rama after a government meeting immediately after the serious incident recorded near the 9-year-old "Fan Noli" school, where 14-year-old Martin Cani was killed.
Contacted at the time by the Associated Press, TikTok representatives responded by emphasizing that they had "found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts and multiple reports have confirmed that in fact the videos that led to this incident were posted on another platform, not TikTok."