00:00Social media platform TikTok is back in Albania after a year-long ban expired this month.
00:07The case has sparked questions over online safety as well as censorship
00:11and highlighted the complexity of imposing such restrictions in a politically fragmented region.
00:17The ban of the short video sharing app was brought in last year
00:20following the killing of a teenage boy reportedly linked to online bullying.
00:25The government says TikTok has now tightened safety measures sufficiently.
00:30By allowing TikTok in Albania again, the country bucks a broader global backlash
00:34against social media companies over alleged harms to young people.
00:38Australia has banned under-16s from such platforms
00:42and other nations are considering similar restrictions.
00:45But the case is more complicated in Albania,
00:48a country hit by unrest over political corruption
00:51and where the ruling party is in an unprecedented fourth term in power.
00:56Prime Minister Eddie Rama's government imposed the ban
00:59just weeks before parliamentary elections last year
01:02and opposition parties have accused the authorities of doing it to silence them.
01:07The government said in a statement the only goal had been to protect children.
01:13TikTok has declined to comment.
01:15Although the ban is now lifted, activists are worried.
01:18Here's Issa Mizurai, president of the Association of Albanian Journalists.
01:24This will create a dangerous example for the future,
01:28both for this government and for the governments that will come after it,
01:31which could exploit this example to block other social networks
01:35or even force a total internet shutdown whenever the government chooses.
01:41However, experts say the ban actually had limited impact.
01:45Brenton Benja, founder of Geek Room Albania, who tracked the ban,
01:49said people simply used tools like VPNs to get around it.
01:54The government also acknowledged in its statement
01:56because of technological hurdles, a full ban had proved impossible.
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