TikTok Kicked Off Government-Issued Devices in Canada

Canada has become the latest country to crack down on TikTok over data collection policies seen as unsafe. Officials said Monday that the Chief Information Officer of Canada had decided, after a review, that the Chinese-owned social media app should not be allowed on government devices because it "presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security," the CBC reports. It will be removed and blocked from all government-issued devices Tuesday, officials said. They said that the move is a precaution and that there is no evidence that government information has been compromised by the popular app.

Mona Fortier, president of Canada's Treasury Board, said the decision was made due to the "legal regime that governs the information collected from mobile devices," reports the Globe and Mail. She added: "TikTok's data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, when asked why a wider ban isn't being brought in, said it is up to people to make their own decisions. He said no further action is being taken, for now, but he hopes that after the government ban, "many Canadians—from businesses to private individuals—will reflect on the security of their own data and perhaps make choices in consequence."

The European Union’s executive branch banned TikTok from phones used by employees last week, the AP reports. Congress and more than half of the states have also banned the app from government devices. In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson complained that the app was being "singled out," saying 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." (More TikTok stories.)