German minister asks to be careful when using TikTok
TikTok has caused many concerns from the aspect of national security risks and the user information it collects.
BERLIN: Germany’s Education Minister has urged TikTok users to be cautious given the hugely popular short video app’s ties to China, dpa reported citing the news portal.
Bettina Stark-Watzinger, a member of the Free Democrats (FDP) who owns a business, said she understood TikTok’s appeal, but said she was not one of the platform’s users.
TikTok belongs to China’s ByteDance group, causing many concerns from the aspects of national security risks and the user information it collects.
Several countries have banned TikTok on government-owned devices. In the United States, there is debate about whether an absolute ban is necessary.
“You just have to see, in other countries controls are made on such applications, not legally allowed for good reasons,” Stark-Watzinger told the German news portal t-online in an interview published on Friday.
He also asked universities to reconsider their cooperation with China, especially those related to rapidly growing fields such as artificial intelligence.
“We need to be careful with technology that is used from a military point of view or that is against our values such as in the field of artificial intelligence,” he told t-online.
“We cannot be complacent about China and must be careful,” said Stark-Watzinger.
