The TikTok ban in Albania across the policy cycle

Framing, legitimation, and rollback in mediated discourse

Bibliographic Data

ID22094064
AuthorsLorena Liçenji (0009-0000-8866-8504, American University of the Middle East, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume11
Publication date2026-06-03
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Communication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2297-900X • E-ISSN: 2297-900X
PublisherFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fcomm.2026.1847142
OpenAlexW7163426645
LanguageEN
References cited23

Platform bans are high-stakes interventions in communication infrastructure, yet scholarship still knows relatively little about how their public meaning changes across a full policy cycle. This article examines Albanian mediated discourse on the TikTok ban across three policy-cycle phases: announcement, enforcement, and rollback. Analysis is based on a qualitatively driven mixed-method content analysis of 240 items from 11 outlets, with a main analytic sample of 235 items after deduplication and a 201-item robustness sample. Items were coded for stance toward the ban, actor voice, primary frame, legitimation cues, and remedy constructions. The findings show a clear policy-cycle shift. The announcement phase is dominated by safety and child-protection framing and by supportive coverage. The enforcement phase is marked by greater challenger visibility, stronger opposition to the ban, and a turn toward rights and governance framing. During rollback, coverage becomes government-centered again, but the policy is reframed through governance, monitoring, conditional access, and platform-accountability language. Actor blocks strongly structure both framing and stance. At the descriptive level, authorization clusters with government discourse, while rollback discourse moves away from shutdown toward monitoring and platform-accountability cues. The article argues that platform bans are best understood as policy-cycle communication events, and that rollback operates not as simple retreat but as discursive re-legitimation

Corporate governance · Discourse analysis · Disinformation · Enforcement · Legitimation · Negotiation · Public discourse · Scholarship · Copyright and Intellectual Property · Cybersecurity and Cyber Warfare Studies · Freedom of Expression and Defamation

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