Germany: Olaf Scholz joins TikTok but promises not to dance
Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron did it before him. Olak Scholz opens an account on TikTok. The German Chancellor published a first video on the Chinese platform this Monday while TikTok is regularly singled out for the lack of protection of its users' data,
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (our photo) published a first video on the Chinese platform this Monday, April 8. AFP - ANDREAS SOLARO
By: RFI with AFP
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The video lasts about ten seconds. We see a black satchel placed on a sofa, before discovering
Olaf Scholz
sitting at his office in the chancellery. The German Chancellor is not dancing: he made the promise on the X network, formerly Twitter, but his intention is to reach young people. By adding TikTok to its range of communication channels, the chancellery intends first of all to “
increase the provision of information to citizens
” but will also “allow
us to take a look behind the scenes of government work
” indicated the spokesperson for the Chancellor, Steffen Hebestreit.
A social media juggernaut
TikTok, whose parent company is ByteDance, is a juggernaut of
smartphone
applications , with more than a billion users each month. The principle of the
network
- originally - consists of sharing brief dance videos or challenges of all kinds. A digital strike force that worries several Western capitals. Chinese authorities could have access to user data and take advantage of it to carry out propaganda. In France, senators pointed this out in an official report.
An essential platform?
The United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, have banned
TikTok
on federally owned devices. But that doesn't stop French and American heads of state from publishing their videos on TikTok, a platform that has become essential. So, Joe Biden opened an account in February 2024 in the hope of reaching young people in this election year for him. Which did not prevent him from expressing his “
concern
” about the platform during a telephone interview with Xi Jinping in early April.
Eight billion neighborsShould TikTok be banned?
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