In the debate about the short video service Tiktok, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser sees no basis for a general ban on the app in Germany. However, one must clarify more that Tiktok is a company from which “the data can of course flow away,” said SPD politician Faeser on Wednesday (local time) in Washington. A ban on the service, which is particularly popular with young people, is currently being discussed in the USA. Tiktok has more than a billion users worldwide.
Tiktok is under increasing political pressure because the platform belongs to the Bytedance group from China. Company boss Shou Zi Chew was scheduled to answer questions from US lawmakers in Congress on Thursday. Topics of the House Commerce Committee hearing are data security and child protection. In the US, the service has more than 150 million users. They are also widespread in Germany.
Tiktok is the only online platform that is also successful in the West that does not come from the USA. There is increasing concern in the US and Europe that Chinese authorities and secret services could use it to collect information from users or influence users. According to media reports, the US government is demanding the exit of Chinese shareholders.
Chinese company based in the Cayman Islands
Tiktok rejects such allegations and emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company. Bytedance is 60 percent owned by western investors. The company is based on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean. Critics counter that the Chinese founders held 20 percent of the control thanks to higher voting rights and that Bytedance has a large headquarters in Beijing.
In the app you can scroll from one short video to the next. A decisive factor for success is the software algorithm, which selects clips individually for each user and constantly adapts them to their preferences. It is taken into account whether you have watched a video to the end or scrolled through immediately. In the end, the software has a good idea of the users’ interests. One of the concerns in the West is that this wealth of data could be misused.
In the US, Canada and Great Britain, the app is banned from government employees’ work phones, including by the EU Commission. A law is also in the works in the US Congress that could give President Joe Biden the power to ban the app altogether. Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had already tried to force the sale of Tiktok’s international business with a threat of a ban. However, he was stopped by US courts, which saw a lack of legal basis for the action.
Tiktok denies allegations
Tiktok emphasizes that it has never received data requests from the Chinese government and will not comply with them because there is no legal basis for it. The service is attempting to address concerns with promises of more transparency. Data from European users is to be stored in three data centers in Europe. So far they are stored in Singapore and the USA. An independent partner will also monitor the flow of data and access to information. In the USA, Tiktok has the software code of its app checked in a similar structure by the software group Oracle.
Faeser wants to take general action against state interference from China. “We have just come from a strong dependence on Russia for energy supply. We don’t want to create further dependencies,” said the SPD politician. With regard to Tiktok, she emphasized that great care is taken to identify state influence by China as early as possible. During her visit to the United States, she also wanted to talk about the influence exerted by disinformation campaigns run by Russia and China.
