The TikTok ban expands to one more country

Feb 28, 2023 05:40 GMT  ·  By

Canada is the latest country to ban TikTok on government-issued mobile devices after the European Commission and the United States enforced similar restrictions earlier this year.

The President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier, explained in a statement that the app must be removed from all devices that are issued by the government.

Furthermore, downloading TikTok will no longer be allowed.

As for the reasons behind the ban, Fortier explains that TikTok “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”

Needless to say, no further specifics on this level of risk were shared, and the press release does not mention whether any information from government-issued mobile devices in Canada was compromised.

There’s no evidence on this front, Fortier noted, adding that the data collection conducted by TikTok could be used as a backdoor to access other contents on the mobile device.

“The decision to remove and block TikTok from government mobile devices is being taken as a precaution, particularly given concerns about the legal regime that governs the information collected from mobile devices, and is in line with the approach of our international partners. On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone,” the press release notes.

Worth emphasizing, however, is that the decision only concerns government-issued mobile devices. And the Canadian official also reminds that users in the country can run any app they want on their devices, though taking into account the security and privacy risks is something everybody should do.

“For the broader public, the decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice,” Fortier explains, telling users to check out the Communications Security Establishment’s Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) guidance.