The order comes from the White House. Washington on Monday, February 27, asked all federal agencies to remove the TikTok application from its mobile devices within thirty days, citing concerns about the security of user data. A few agencies, such as the Department of Defense and Homeland Security, had already implemented such restrictions.
That same day, the Canadian government announced that it would ban the TikTok application from the mobile devices it provides to its staff as of Tuesday, citing “unacceptable level of risk” for privacy and security. An emergency ban.
“On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods give considerable access to phone content”explained the president of the Ministry of the Treasury, Mona Fortier, specifying in a press release that the ban had been taken “as a preventive measure”. “We have no reason to believe at this time that any government information has been compromised”she added, however.
A spokesperson for TikTok reacted by deploring, in an email to Agence France-Presse, a decision “curious”prise “without citing any specific security issue”and regretting that the platform was not contacted by the government.
The ultra-popular application of short and viral videos, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is increasingly scrutinized by Westerners who fear that Beijing could thus access the data of users around the world.
In the wake of the European Commission
This ban in Canada comes days after a similar decision by the European Commission, which banned TikTok from its staff for ” protect “ l’institution.
TikTok is also in the crosshairs of the American authorities: a law ratified a few weeks ago by President Joe Biden prohibits the use of this application in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as on the devices of civil servants.
Relations between China and Canada have deteriorated sharply in recent years, particularly after the arrest by Canada at the request of the United States of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in 2018.
The Canadian privacy commissioner announced last week that it had launched an investigation into TikTok aimed at establishing its compliance with Canadian laws. In particular, it aims to verify that “TikTok has obtained valid consent for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information”.
The President of the Ministry of the Treasury wished to recall that the general public was not affected by this ban: “ When it comes to the general public, the decision to use a social media app or platform is a personal choice. However, the Communications Security Establishment’s Canadian Center for Cyber Security guidelines strongly recommend that Canadians understand the risks and make an informed choice before deciding which tools they want to use. »