Tik-Tok Government-Based Ban
By Ronnie Neiman
February saw the ban of TikTok on government devices in Ontario. On Feb. 28, the Canadian government joined the European Union (EU) and the United States Senate in banning TikTok from government-issued devices. That means the app has been removed from all federal government-issued cellphones and users won't be able to download it in the future.
TikTok is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd., which appoints its executives. ByteDance is based in Beijing but registered in the Cayman Islands, as is common for privately owned Chinese companies. While the ban isn’t Canada-wide, the app isn’t seen as trusted as it is a Chinese-owned app. There are security concerns over using the app.
The app has been banned on government devices in Canada, Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Taiwan, the UK and the US. The EU told its staff to remove the app from phones it has issued, and also recommended they remove it from private devices on which official apps are installed. India has banned TikTok outright because of security concerns. Afghanistan has also banned it to prevent young people from "being misled".
Governments fear that 5G equipment installed by Chinese firms in foreign countries' networks contains "backdoors" through which data can be passed back to Beijing. Through companies such as Hikvision, China is the world's largest producer of security cameras. It is thought that that these could also be secretly feeding intelligence to China. TikTok insists it gathers no more data than other social media apps, and is independent of the government.
In 2022, it admitted that some of its staff in China could access user data gathered in Europe, but it says that it is working on ways of keeping such information within Europe.
It may seem as though espionage being a possibility is motivating several countries to ban the app, being safe online should still be a priority. Only share data that you want shared. Be smart, be safe.