Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

Justin Trudeau China city Beijing Usa Britain Eu Singapore Canada city Columbia, Britain TikTok BLOCK Action Mobile

28.02.2023 - 11:57

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theguardian.com:

Canada has announced it is banning TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices, reflecting widening worries from western officials over the Chinese-owned video sharing app.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, said there may or may not be further steps. “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 said.

“I’m always a fan of giving Canadians the information for them to make the right decisions for them.”

The European Union’s executive branch said last week it had temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity measure.

The EU’s action follows similar moves in the US, where more than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices.

Last week, Canada’s federal privacy watchdog and its provincial counterparts in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec announced an investigation of whether the app complies with Canadian privacy legislation.

TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could be collecting data on western users or pushing pro-China narratives and misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.

TikTok faces intensifying scrutiny from Europe and America over security and data privacy amid worries that the app could be used to promote pro-Beijing views or sweep up users’ information. It comes as China and the west are locked in a wider tug of war over technology ranging from spy balloons to computer