Norwegian minister apologises over TikTok on her work phone

Norway’s justice minister apologised on Wednesday for having failed to admit, when quizzed in Parliament, that she had installed and used TikTok on her government-issued phone.

The popular video-sharing app is Chinese owned, which has raised fears in the West that Beijing could use it to scoop up user data or push pro-China narratives or misinformation.

Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl, 29, told lawmakers on Wednesday that she had installed TikTok on her government phone for about a month last fall and has since deleted it. Questioned by opposition lawmakers in the past, she had dodged the issue citing “security reasons.” “I could have been open about this earlier,” Enger Mehl said Wednesday.