On Thursday, Chancellor Scholz was asked by a citizen at a citizens' dialogue in Dresden that the AfD was pouring “crappy brown sauce” over people on the video portal Tiktok and that the democratic parties didn't even exist there. The Chancellor, using the microphone, agreed with her and explained that the federal government was discussing whether to become active there too. This statement is now calling data protection officers into action.
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The Federal Data Protection Commissioner reacted skeptically to the Chancellor's announcement. The Editorial Network Germany quotes the supervisory authority's spokesman, Christof Stein: “Should the federal government operate an account, as the Chancellor has announced, then the BfDI will deal more intensively with the issue.” And he immediately warns: “Public bodies generally have a role model function when it comes to social media and should only use them if it is legally possible.”
As early as 2021, the data protection officer had informed the federal ministries and authorities of his concerns, which were based on potential data protection violations at Tiktok. At that time, it was not recommended to install the app on work cell phones. The discussion about activities on Tiktok, which is popular with young people, has been simmering for a long time. At the end of 2022, government spokesman Hebestreit was quoted as referring to an audit note from the Federal Press Office on the Chinese platform, which warned against a presence there.
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