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Social Networks Government

Albania Will Close TikTok for One Year, Saying It Encourages Violence Among Children (apnews.com) 27

The Associated Press reports that in Albania (population: 2,402,113), "children comprise the largest group of TikTok users in the country, according to domestic researchers."

But "Albania's prime minister said Saturday the government will shut down the video service TikTok for one year, blaming it for inciting violence and bullying, especially among children" after "the stabbing death of a teenager in mid-November by another teen after a quarrel that started on TikTok." There has been increasing concern from Albanian parents after reports of children taking knives and other objects to school to use in quarrels or cases of bullying promoted by stories they see on TikTok. TikTok's operations in China, where its parent company is based, are different, "promoting how to better study, how to preserve nature ... and so on," according to Rama. Albania is too small a country to impose on TikTok a change of its algorithm so that it does not promote "the reproduction of the unending hell of the language of hatred, violence, bullying and so on," Rama's office wrote in an email response to The Associated Press' request for comment. Rama's office said that in China TikTok "prevents children from being sucked into this abyss."
TikTok told the Associated Press it "found no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts, and multiple reports have in fact confirmed videos leading up to this incident were being posted on another platform, not TikTok...."
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Albania Will Close TikTok for One Year, Saying It Encourages Violence Among Children

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  • Such as destabilizing the world. Cutting off anyone adversarial, and now it seems poisoning the world's children (just not it's own) with hatred and violence, possibly so when they make their moves, it'll be easier to "cull the herd" as it were. Ok tinfoil hat off, but seriously, is it that far out there? Everybody wants to rule the world they say, and it's looking like China has a real long game already producing results I'm sure are even better than they ever expected.
    • They're just following America's lead. Facebook, YouTube, et al were there first. The Chinese are just proving better at it. Furthermore, it's not even the Chinese producing the content. It's Westerners, mostly Americans, doing it to themselves and each other. China just provides the means. Remember, guns and Social Media don't kill you, people kill you.

      • Youtube was attacked by china for stifling innovation along with twitter. So we get X and Tic Tok, two efforts china openly supported. So as far as people killing people the strategy has been to deny the opportunity by regulating the guns. Foreign made guns seem designed to circumvent those regulations...
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • My only concern about the "Chinese" portion of the platform is that the Chinese government will do what it wants, and if the business doesn't follow along... well... hopefully they don't mind being locked up forever along with their family. The USA is bad enough with National Security stuff, but the Chinese make that look like child's play.

        So people in TikTok leadership can say whatever they want about data staying in the USA blah blah blah, but the brutal truth is that they will do what the Chinese gove
  • by nikkipolya ( 718326 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @12:11PM (#65032661)

    The world is binging on toxic content, thanks to Meta Inc. and other social media platforms that are following in Meta's footsteps.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), or an investment court system (ICS), is a set of rules through which states (sovereign nations) can be sued by foreign investors for certain state actions affecting the foreign direct investments (FDI) of that investor. Just a shame Albania is trying to muffle these actions. And while here, why are 'Adult' dating websites that encourage polyamory not closed down too. BTW TicTok is run from Singapore.
    • To be fair TikTok has a lot of content that makes FaceBook look tame.

      The door kick challenge is one, and I'm still waiting for some stupid kid to get really unlucky and get shot over that stupidity.

      There are others, but toxic influencers are becoming a real issue. Not just on TikTok, granted, but there's a LOT of dangerous content on that platform causing physical harm to people.
  • Harry Potter, Ender's Game, The Hunger Games, and population control. Lovely!

  • by NotEmmanuelGoldstein ( 6423622 ) on Sunday December 22, 2024 @04:11PM (#65033141)

    ... the reproduction of the unending hell of ...
    ... had TikTok accounts ...

    Nobody is allowed to blame Facebook and other American corporations that did this first and still do it better.

    Why does this finger-pointing feel dishonest?

    • ... the reproduction of the unending hell of ... ... had TikTok accounts ...

      Nobody is allowed to blame Facebook and other American corporations that did this first and still do it better.

      Why does this finger-pointing feel dishonest?

      You're mixing two complaints about social media. The security issues with TikTok - from a Western perspective - is that it's owned within an adversarial nation. The information it harvests either is, or could be accessible to their government without any notice.

      The main difference there is that the others are owned within the US, where government access would require some publicity - except in cases of law-enforcement requests. It's assumed that - for instance - the Biden administration weren't calling

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