Published on: November 11, 2024
The Canadian government ordered TikTok’s Canadian branch to be shut down, calling it a national security risk.
Officials reviewed TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and found that it had “specific national security risks” associated with its use.
The app will still be usable. Anyone in Canada can still open the app store, install TikTok, and scroll to their heart’s content.
While Canada still allows TikTok to be used by its citizens, they urge people to be aware of its privacy risks and consider their online safety.
To offer some background, TikTok is a massively popular video hosting app, but its parent company, ByteDance is Chinese-owned. Experts worry about the government’s ability to harvest ByteDance’s data for use in espionage campaigns. The app is particularly popular among young people.
In the past, Canada banned TikTok on all government-issued devices. It’s not the only country to go after ByteDance. The United States government recently ordered ByteDance to sell the American branch to a US company.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said that the dissolution is in accordance with the Investment Canada Act. This act allows the government to remove foreign investments that cause reasonable harm to Canada’s national security.
“While Canada continues to welcome foreign direct investment, the government will act decisively when investments threaten our national security,” he states.
TikTok already plans to challenge the decision.
“Shutting down TikTok’s Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of well-paying local jobs is not in anyone’s best interest, and today’s shutdown order will do just that. We will challenge this order in court,” they explain.
Champagne took a strong stance against TikTok, despite the company’s pushback.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he writes.