Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) urges caution when using the Tiktok smartphone app. “For example, I don’t use the Chinese video app Tiktok,” she told the news portal “t-online”.
She understands the appeal, but is not active there. “You just have to see: In other countries, there is a control over such apps that is not legally permitted here for good reasons.” Tiktok is particularly popular with young smartphone users. A debate about a ban on the software for short videos has been raging in the USA for a long time, and critics accuse the Chinese owner of Bytedance of influencing users.
Stark-Watzinger forderte Hochschulen auf, Kooperationen mit China
to be weighed up and risks minimized. The minister called for caution, especially with some future technologies such as artificial intelligence. “We have to be careful with technologies that are used militarily or that can be used contrary to our values. Like in the field of artificial intelligence.” This technology could be used to control the population. “We must not be naive about China and have to be extremely careful,” Stark-Watzinger told the portal.