TORONTO — Canada introduced Monday it’s banning TikTok from all government-issued cell gadgets, reflecting widening worries from Western officers over the Chinese-owned video sharing app.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mentioned it is perhaps a primary step to additional motion.
“I suspect that as government takes the significant step of telling all federal employees that they can no longer use TikTok on their work phones many Canadians from business to private individuals will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices,” Trudeau mentioned.
The European Union’s government department mentioned final week it has quickly banned TikTok from telephones utilized by staff as a cybersecurity measure.
The EU’s motion follows comparable strikes within the U.S., the place greater than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official authorities gadgets.
Last week, Canada’s federal privateness watchdog and its provincial counterparts in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec introduced an investigation to delve into whether or not the app complies with Canadian privateness laws.
TikTok is wildly widespread with younger folks, however its Chinese possession has raised fears that Beijing might use it to gather knowledge on Western customers or push pro-China narratives and misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese firm that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020
TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and America over safety and knowledge privateness amid worries that the app may very well be used to advertise pro-Beijing views or sweep up customers’ data. It comes as China and the West are locked in a wider tug of struggle over expertise starting from spy balloons to pc chips.
Canadian Treasury Board President Mona Fortier mentioned the federal authorities may even block the app from being downloaded on official gadgets sooner or later.
Fortier mentioned in assertion the Chief Information Officer of Canada decided that it “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”
The app might be faraway from Canadian authorities issued telephones on Tuesday.
“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone,” Fortier mentioned.
“While the risks of using this application are clear, we have no evidence at this point that government information has been compromised.”
Recent media reviews have additionally raised issues about potential Chinese interference in current Canadian elections, prompting opposition events to name for a public inquiry into alleged international 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 mentioned in a e mail.
The firm is at all times obtainable to debate the privateness and safety of Canadians, the assertion mentioned. “Singling out TikTok in this way does nothing to achieve that shared goal,” the e-mail mentioned. “All it does is prevent officials from reaching the public on a platform loved by millions of Canadians.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”