Hungary purchases missiles from France

Hungary has initialled an agreement to buy French Mistral air defence missiles, Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on Tuesday.

The declaration of intent was signed alongside Belgium, Estonia, Cyprus, France at a European defence show in Paris addressed by President Emmanuel Macron, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in a video uploaded to his Facebook page.

He noted that Macron highlighted the importance of air defence and the European defence industry.

“Hungary is doing well in this respect; we’re developing our defence industry. Peace requires strength, we’re working on this,” he said.

LMP wants Tik Tok to be removed from state, local government devices

Opposition LMP on Tuesday announced that it is initiating an amendment to the law on IT security aimed at preventing the use of Tik Tok on state and local government devices in a bid to protect state administration and the country’s cyber security.

“Right now we’re living in an era of surveillance capitalism, with technology giants monitoring our every move on the Internet and keeping track of our location,” Mate Kanasz-Nagy, the party’s deputy group leader, told a press conference.

He said that while this issue was not limited to Tik Tok, the Chinese company carried greater risk to national security than other platforms, adding that personal data could easily end up in China, and the company was closely tied to the Chinese state leadership.

The UK, Belgium, France and Canada are among countries to have banned the use of the platform on state devices, the LMP politician said. Also European Commission employees are prevented from using Tik Tok on work devices, he added.

In a previous LMP proposal package on child protection, the party recommended restricting the use of the platform for those under the age of 18, he noted.

Featured image: illustration (Mistral air defence missile)