– This is almost unreal. It is potentially very serious and I do not think it is excessive dramatization at all, the head of the justice commission and former justice minister Per-Willy Amundsen (FRP) told Dagbladet.
When the Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) did not want to answer Dagbladet’s question if he uses the minister’s cell phone for his Tiktok profileboth the Conservative Party and the FRP took matters into their own hands.
While the Right sent a written reply to the Minister of Justice, The FRP raised the issue with Mehl at Storting in connection with the debate on the throne speech last week.
But the Minister of Justice does not give a clearer answer to the Storting than to Dagbladet. Now FRP asks Støre for a clear answer.
He receives criticism of Tiktok: – Unfortunate and naive
– Concerned
Dagbladet mentioned the Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl in several cases regularly post updates on Chinese-owned TikTok.
Social media is hotly debated and security experts warn it. The owner company ByteDance is Chinese and experts believe that the data collected could end up directly with the Beijing intelligence services.
REQUIRES ANSWERS: Per-Willy Amundsen of FrP. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB
sea View
– I am concerned that people underestimate how serious it is, Amundsen tells Dagbladet and explains why:
– TikTok is more than social media. It was created by the Chinese authorities to safeguard Chinese interests and obtain valuable information for the Beijing regime. Both EU and US authorities have warned TikTok with this in mind. China is also behaving in an increasingly threatening way towards the West and the country’s link with Russia is well known. This makes it even more serious, he continues.
Indicates an intelligence threat
Mehl has provided Dagbladet affairs with a general statement on how it relates to security and that it follows the National Security Authority’s general advice and guidelines.
However, he never wanted to answer if he uses the closet cell phone or another cell phone to TikTok.
He did not even want to answer this question to Amundsen from the podium and pointed out, among other things, that the foreign secret services also control the debates in the Storting.
The fact that he doesn’t answer keeps the uncertainty alive, and I think it indicates that he may have used the service telephone. The evasive answer appears to be an admission of guilt, says Amundsen.
Now he has to answer
Link to Søre
In a written question, FRP Støre now asks for an answer to what guidelines, if any, SMK has for ministers’ use of TikTok. They also ask how many government ministers have installed this application on their official phones.
Nor are conservatives comfortable with Mehl’s answer, and judicial policy spokesman Sveinung Stensland is therefore behind Amundsen’s request that Støre should answer this question.
– Mehl’s way of responding makes it necessary to contact his superior, the prime minister, Stensland tells Dagbladet.
SMK’s communications officer, Anne Kristin Hjukse, previously told Dagbladet that SMK provides general advice on the safe and secure use of social media, but is unaware that the Prime Minister’s office has advised against it. use of specific apps or platforms.
– We do not have an overview of the guidelines of the governing parties on social media or the advice that politicians give to each other, Hjukse added.
The fact that there was a ban on TikTok when Erna Solberg was head of the government therefore suggests that it was a political compromise.
Success with China
– If it is really true that the office of the Prime Minister has no guidelines for the use of TikTok by ministers, then it is reprehensible and naive. If so, the Prime Minister should immediately ensure that such guidelines are put in place, says Amundsen on SMK’s response to Dagbladet.
He points to the Sandberg case
If Mehl used a private cell phone, that’s not a problem, Amundsen believes.
Security expert Gaute Bjørklund Wangen also pointed out the same to Dagbladet:
– Reduces the risk by having two separate phones, but the problem doesn’t go away. Just by having that phone around, she risks the app tracking her. Then people know where she was and when she was there. She can reveal a lot, Wangen said.
Amundsen also points out that in 2018 then FRP minister Per Sandberg had to resign for taking his cabinet cell phone to Iran.
Quiet about friend Putin
It was clearly serious. But to confront matters, Sandberg was Minister of Fisheries, and thus had a much less sensitive role in Norway’s preparation than that of the Minister of Justice. Furthermore, it has never been proven that anyone attempted to access Sandberg’s cell phone, and so on veterinarian it happens in this case, says Amundsen.
He explains that in this case he is reacting to both the Ministry of Justice and SMK.
– Either there is a violation of the rules, or these rules should actually exist. Something else appears completely incomprehensible in the situation we find ourselves in today. Norway is facing the most critical preparation challenge in many decades, so we simply cannot accept it.
