Canada Bans TikTok on Government Mobile Devices

The Canadian government announced Monday that it will ban the TikTok app on mobile devices it provides to its staff starting Tuesday, citing “an unacceptable level of risk” to privacy and security.

“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to content on the phone”, Treasury Minister Mona Fortier said, adding in a statement that this decision was made “As a precautionary measure”.

“We have no reason to believe at this time that any government information has been compromised.”, he added.

A TikTok spokeswoman said the Canadian decision to block the app was “curious“as it was taken”without citing any specific security issues”, and regretted that the Government had not contacted them before the official announcement.

The popular short and viral video platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is increasingly scrutinized by Western countries, which fear that Beijing could access user data from around the world in this way.

This ban in Canada comes days after a similar decision by the European Commission, which banned its staff from using TikTok to “protect” the institution.

TikTok is also in the crosshairs of the US authorities: a law ratified a few weeks ago by President Joe Biden prohibits the use of this application in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as on the devices of administration officials.

Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated dramatically in recent years, particularly after Ottawa’s arrest, at the request of the United States, of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in 2018.

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, a nonpartisan ombudsman and Parliament official, announced last week that it has launched an investigation into TikTok with the aim of establishing its compliance with Canadian law.

Its particular objective is to verify that “TikTok has obtained valid consent for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information”.