Some German MPs on a parliamentary intelligence board think the country should consider a harder stance on TikTok.

Some politicians in Germany consider the app “a danger to our democracy,” says Roderich Kiesewetter, vice chairman of the Bundestag’s intelligence control committee and member of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), because it is an “important instrument” in China and Russia’s hybrid warfare.

Jens Zimmerman, a member of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, said that the government should consider at least banning the app on federal devices. This is the case for the EU institutions, for instance.

  • gapbetweenus@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    Is the Europe slowly waking up to the reality, that they granted propaganda machines and intelligence services targeted and unrestricted assess to their citizens?

  • muelltonne@feddit.deEnglish
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    8 months ago

    I’m pretty sure that TikTok is already illegal here. There have been several reports that the chinese government has access to the data and that would totally be in violation of GDPR. I’m sure that you can find other violations of existing laws. So if someone wants to ban TikTok, he just has to push the responsible government agencies to do their fucking job.

    • RedPandaRaider@feddit.deEnglish
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      8 months ago

      If government access to social media data is a breach of GDRP, then every single social media site is operating illegally in the EU.

      • muelltonne@feddit.deEnglish
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        8 months ago

        The details are much complexer than “government access to social media”, but the same issues are also applying to US social media sites. If you want to know more, google “US EU privacy shield”

  • zipfelwurster@feddit.deEnglish
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    8 months ago

    I have mixed feelings about this.

    We as the west point to Russia and China frequently, lamenting the closed-off nature of their Internet.

    Now we are publicly pushing towards further fragmentation of the Internet.

    I find it hard to see major differences between blocking TikTok here and China blocking Facebook over there. I assume, the process here is a little more publicly discussed whereas in Russia or China, things are quietly blocked by government agencies, but I might even be wrong about that.

    • ECB@feddit.deEnglish
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      8 months ago

      Now that the internet (and particularly social media) has become weaponized as a very cost-effective tool for cyber-warfare, it’s basically inevitable that the fragmentation will continue to happen.

      It’s a bit uncomfortable because it goes against the idealism of the early internet which I still cling to, but I just don’t see any way that the current situation is sustainable.