Public servants will continue to be able to use the popular app in the future, but only on their private devices, according to Karner. Such “open phones” can also be used by law enforcement when TikTok research is part of the investigation. The TikTok channels of politicians can thus continue to operate.
Karner justified the measure with corresponding recommendations of an interministerial working group. The decision was made in the interests of information and data security, the minister said, noting that TikTok is a Chinese state-owned company.
The Federal Chancellery had already informed ORF.at at the end of February that the Ministry of the Interior was examining “the danger and handling” of TikTok. Actually, the exam should only last a few days, it said at the start of the exam from the Federal Chancellery. A query in mid-March revealed that the interior department was still busy with the inspection process. It’s about technical and legal components, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior in mid-March.
Several bans already pronounced
Numerous governments and authorities around the world are banning and banning TikTok from the cell phones of their employees. In the USA in particular, TikTok has come under increasing political pressure in recent months. President Joe Biden’s administration has already banned the app from government employees’ phones. Chinese authorities and secret services could collect information about Americans through TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and influence them politically, the reasoning goes.
At the end of March, TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew had to answer questions in the US Congress. He met with distrust and rejection from both Republican and Democratic MPs. The company rejects all suspicions and emphasizes that it does not see itself as a subsidiary of a Chinese company.
At the end of February, the EU Commission also banned its employees from using TikTok on company cell phones and laptops. With the Australian ban at the beginning of April, all members of the “Five Eyes Intelligence Sharing Network” – consisting of Australia, Canada, the USA, Great Britain and New Zealand – have now also banned the app from government devices.
Especially popular with the younger generation
TikTok is especially popular among the younger generation. Globally, the app reportedly has over a billion active monthly users – most of whom are under 30 or in their teens. In Austria alone, around 70 percent of children and young people between the ages of 11 and 15 use the online platform. You can create short videos, an algorithm will suggest videos to watch.
Despite international data protection concerns, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance closed the past year with a jump in sales, according to media reports. The group’s revenues increased by more than 30 percent to over 80 billion dollars (around 74 billion euros) in 2022, wrote the website The Information and the financial service Bloomberg.
