TikTok is not getting off the ground. This week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a bill that could ban the app nationwide. In addition, according to The Guardian, Canada has also announced a ban on the app, although only on government devices for the time being.
“I suspect that as the government takes the important step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones, many Canadians, from businesses to individuals, will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after announcing the ban.
Canada’s ban of TikTok on official devices joins that of the United States, which banned the use of the app on House of Representatives mobiles, and that of the European Union, which has banned it from the devices of all European Commission staff. The United Kingdom is also considering banning the app on government devices.
Treasury Board of Canada president Mona Fortier said in a statement that, going forward, the federal government would also block TikTok from being downloaded on official devices. Fortier stated that Canada’s chief information officer had determined that the app presented “an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security”.
“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 app are clear, we have no evidence at this time that government information has been compromised.”
Through a spokesperson who contacted The Guardian, TikTok expressed disappointment at the news: “It is curious that the Canadian government has moved to block TikTok on government-issued devices without citing any specific security concerns or contacting us with questions, only after similar bans were introduced in the EU and the US.”
