German minister urges caution over TikTok's Chinese ties

BERLIN - Germany's Education Minister has urged TikTok users to be cautious given the wildly popular short-form video app's connection to China, reported dpa quoting a news portal.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger, a member of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), said she understood TikTok's appeal, but she was not one of the platform's viewers.

TikTok is owned by China's ByteDance group, spurring fears about national security risks and the information being collected on users.

Several capitals have banned TikTok on government-owned devices. In the United States, there is a debate about whether an outright ban is necessary.

"You just have to look: In other countries, control takes place via such apps, which is not legally allowed here for good reasons," Stark-Watzinger told the German news portal t-online in an interview published on Friday.

She also called on universities to weigh up their cooperation with China, especially when it comes to rapidly advancing areas like artificial intelligence. "We have to be careful with technologies that are used militarily, or can also be used against our values. Like in the field of artificial intelligence," she told t-online.

"We must not be naïve towards China and must be extremely careful," Stark-Watzinger said. - BERNAMA-dpa