TORONTO (AP) – Canada announced it would ban TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting growing concerns among Western officials over Chinese video-sharing apps.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this could and could be the first step towards further action.
“If the government takes the important step of banning all federal employees from using TikTok on their work phones, many Canadians, from businesses to individuals, will think about their own security and I think we’ll probably make a decision, data,” Trudeau said.
“I always prefer to provide information so that Canadians can make the right decisions,” he added.
A European Union official said last week that he had temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure.
The EU’s action follows similar moves in the U.S., where more than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices.
Last week, Canada’s federal privacy watchdog and its provincial counterparts in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec announced an investigation to delve into whether the app complies with Canadian privacy legislation.
TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could use it to collect data on Western users or push pro-China narratives and misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020
TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and America over security and data privacy amid worries that the app could be used to promote pro-Beijing views or sweep up users’ information. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer chips.
Canadian Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said the federal government will also block the app from being downloaded on official devices in the future.
Fortier said in statement the Chief Information Officer of Canada determined that it “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”
The app will be removed from Canadian government issued phones on Tuesday.
“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone,” Fortier said.
“While the risks of using this application are clear, we have no evidence at this point that government information has been compromised.”
Recent media reports have also raised concerns about potential Chinese interference in recent Canadian elections, prompting opposition parties to call for a public inquiry into alleged foreign election interference.
“It’s curious that the Government of Canada has moved to block TikTok on government-issued devices—without citing any specific security concern or contacting us with questions—only after similar bans were introduced in the EU and the US,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a email. The company is always open to discussing privacy and security with Canadians, according to a statement. “Singling out TikTok in this way does nothing to help us achieve this common goal,” the email reads. “It’s a platform beloved by millions of Canadians that simply prevents officials from coming into contact with the public.”
