Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it might be a first step
to further action or that it might be it.
"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," he added.
The European Union's executive branch said last week it has
temporarily banned TikTok from phones used by employees as a cybersecurity
measure.
The EU's action follows similar moves in the U.S., 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 to delve into 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 use it to collect data on Western
users or push 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 chips.
Canadian Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said the
federal government will also block the app from being downloaded on official
devices in the future.
Fortier said in statement the Chief Information Officer of
Canada determined that it "presents an unacceptable level of risk to
privacy and security."
The app will be removed from Canadian government issued
phones on Tuesday.
"On a mobile device, TikTok's data collection methods
provide considerable access to the contents of the phone," Fortier said.
"While the risks of using this application are clear,
we have no evidence at this point that government information has been
compromised."
Recent media reports have also raised concerns about
potential Chinese interference in recent Canadian elections, prompting
opposition parties to call for a public inquiry into alleged foreign 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 said in a email.
The company is always available to discuss the privacy and
security of Canadians, the statement said. "Singling out TikTok in this
way does nothing to achieve that shared goal," the email said. "All
it does is prevent officials from reaching the public on a platform loved by
millions of Canadians."