Some politicians in Germany consider the app “a danger to our democracy,” says Roderich Kiesewetter, vice chairman of the Bundestag’s intelligence control committee and member of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), because it is an “important instrument” in China and Russia’s hybrid warfare.
Jens Zimmerman, a member of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, said that the government should consider at least banning the app on federal devices. This is the case for the EU institutions, for instance.
The idea that TikTok is dangerous is popular on both sides (and entirely valid). This is not a Republican talking point.
The thing is, that German conservative politics (I know that SPD is also pro banking tiktok according to the article) has started to take every Republican talking point since Merz took over. Don’t get me wrong I’m no fan of tiktok and don’t use it, but they’ve also taken every other inhumane “idea” the Republicans present. After they started a war on gender inclusive language e.g. the German conservatives (and Nazis) started making it a topic in Germany as well. You can be sure that whatever the Republicans are being loud about, our very own neoliberals will have the same topics a few months later.
You’re right. I’ve noticed this as early as the Bush years, with CDU and CSU closely watching what Republicans were doing and trying to (often rather clumsily) copy it. This has not slowed down. I recall I believe Söder vowing to fight “the woke” last year, which really rubbed me the wrong way. The last thing we need is American culture war nonsense poisoning German politics as well, but the floodgates have already been opened by unscrupulous politicians.
Oh yes I remember Söder saying something along the line. Merkel probably blocked a lot of those talking points during her reign. Although she left a lot of things unattended during her 16 years in power, she was often a voice of reason, especially compared to the Bavarian nut jobs. What we would need at the moment is a lot more social politics, as that is the only thing that’ll stop the fascists. Unfortunately what’s happening is parties like the SPD and Grüne taking more conservative stands and taking along the same lines - Bezahlkarte for example should have been stopped at the first mention of it with a simple hint to our history.
It’s so uncontroversial that tiktok is effectively banned in China - even ignoring spying, Douyin algorithm is significantly less harmful than Tiktok’s.
Tiktok is the ultimate Trojan horse and Douyin is proof of that.