The Canadian government has ordered Chinese-owned TikTok business to seize operations in the country citing security issues but however indicated it is not stopping Canadian citizens from accessing the app.
According to Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, the government is taking precautionary measures to streamline ByteDance Ltd’s operations in the country. And this action will be taken through the establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
Champagne admonished Canadians to be very interested in protecting their personal information.
He said the order for TikTok to seize operations was in line with Investment Canada Act, which is done to protect the interest of Canada and also review foreign investments which may bring any harm to Canada’s national security.
Champagne stated the decision was arrived at after careful observation and evidence gathered over a period of time and advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government agencies.
A statement from the spokesperson of the App revealed that the closure of its Canadian office will make lots of people lose their jobs. According to him, the business brand will challenge in court.
TikTok is widely used by young people across the globe. However, the Chinese-owned company has faced a lot of criticisms from countries that believe operationalization of it can bring about security threats or create cultural imperialism or as a way of collecting data on Western Users.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese-owned company which moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.
In recent years, TikTok has come under intense scrutiny from both Europe and America about its data privacy and security.
Canada earlier banned the mobile application from all government cell phone devices.
The move by Canada to dissolve the business in the country comes a day after former president Donald Trump won the November polls. In June, Trump joined TikTok, an app he tried to ban while he was in office.
An executive order Trump gave while he was still in office was to ban TikTok which according to him served as a national security threat. But the ban was revoked after TikTok sued.
The U.S. FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance can share vital information of users such as location and browsing history to China’s government. But ByteDance has refuted such claims assuring that it has never and would never do such thing.
Earlier this year, Trump stated that he continues to feel TikTok presents national security dangers but could not confirm his prior decision to ban it.
