Beginning on Tuesday, TikTok will no longer be accessible on any devices provided by the Canadian government.
The app “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security,” a government spokesperson declared in a statement following a review by Canada’s chief information officer.
TikTok has drawn flak for its use of user data and connections to the Chinese government.
ByteDance Ltd, a Chinese company, is the owner of the short-form video application.
Notably, only a few days before the Canadian government’s decision, the European Commission did the same.
On March 15, the prohibition will go into effect for personnel working for the European Commission.
Concerns around TikTok
The move was necessary, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, because of the level of security concerns surrounding the app.
At a press conference near Toronto on Monday,Trudeau said, “this may be the first step, this may be the only step we need to take.”
Late last year, US federal employees were forbidden from using TikTok, and on Monday, the White House granted government organizations 30 days to remove the app from their infrastructure.
The app is not permitted to be used on the networks of a number of American universities. In several Asian nations, including India, more extensive public restrictions have been put in place.
The business maintains that a Chinese version of the app is distinct from the one used in the rest of the world and that Chinese government officials do not have access to user data. However, the business acknowledged in the past year that some employees in China have access to European customers’ data.
Concerned about user data, particularly whether TikTok gets “valid and meaningful” consent from users when collecting confidential information, Canadian privacy regulators are looking into the app.
According to a recent study by researchers at the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, about 25% of Canadian adults use the application.
The Canadian Treasury Board’s president, Mona Fortier, stated in a statement that the government “is committed to keeping government information secure.”
This week, the application will be taken off of other devices, including those provided by the government, and future downloads will be prohibited.
Fortier said, “On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone. While the risks of using this application are clear, we have no evidence at this point that government information has been compromised.”
TikTok’s reaction
A representative for TikTok expressed the company’s disappointment with the choice.
TikTok’s spokesperson claimed in a statement that the prohibition on the Chinese application was put “without citing any specific security concerns about TikTok or contacting us to discuss any concern prior to making this decision”.
He further said, “We are always available to meet with our government officials to discuss how we protect the privacy and security of Canadians, but singling out TikTok in this way does nothing to achieve that shared goal. All it does is prevent officials from reaching the public on a platform loved by millions of Canadians.”
