TikTok, the social media platform for creating and sharing short video clips which has gained high acceptance, especially in the US and Canada since its inception in 2016, has been banned from Canadian official devices as the adherence to its data protection policy is in doubt.
According to a report given by Toronto Metropolitan University, TikTok Canadian users make up to 26% of the total Canadian population, while another report revealed that the US has about 113.3 million active TikTok users.
TikTok App has been reported to serve as a tool for unauthorized data fetching, creating big distrust in the data protection policy of the social media company. Some time ago, the US government placed a ban on TikTok use on government devices; recently, the Canadian government also released a ban on the use of TikTok on government devices.
In 2022, a hacker announced to have stolen users’ data on the platform. The data supposedly included users’ payment information, but TikTok debunked such claims, denying finding any evidence of a security breach.
It was also reported that the TikTok App serves as a data source for the Chinese government, spying data of Westerner users. These suspicions may have prompted the Canadian government to ban TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices as a cybersecurity approach to protect government data and special information transmitted through these devices.
Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime minister, said, “I suspect that as government take 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.”
While it is rumoured that China is seeking to lead in Global technology and collect intricate data to frontier the world’s tech innovations, the Chinese-owned social media platform denies such collaboration of data fetch and stated that TikTok would not consent even in the future.
The Canadian Treasury Board President, Mona Fortier, also announced that the App would also be disallowed for download on government gadgets. TikTok fears that the action may cause users to question the privacy protection policy and may arouse active users to leave the platform.
TikTok stated that no evidence had been found to prove the government’s information theft, and neither was any specific security concern reported or identified. Moreover, TikTok added that the action could affect government officials as they are denied the opportunity to enjoy the entertainment TikTok provides. If this lingers, do you think TikTok would still strive?
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Photo By Solen Feyissa
