Since Tuesday, the devices of Canadian federal employees have been banned from accessing TikTok. Parliamentarians will also be banned from using the app from this Friday. Justin Trudeau’s government justified the measure by pointing out the privacy and security risks. In this way, Canada joins the United States administration and the European Commission, entities that have recently implemented the same ban for the work devices of their personnel.

Mona Fortier, president of the Treasury Board of Canada (the body that oversees the federal public service), said Monday that Canada’s chief information officer has determined that TikTok “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy. and security”. Fortier added that the app’s methods “provide considerable access” to device content. The office of House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota sent a message a few hours later to parliamentarians informing them that the ban will apply from this Friday. The provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia and Alberta have announced the implementation of the same measure for their government staff.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday – at an event in the Greater Toronto Area – that he takes Canadians’ freedom of expression and internet use very seriously, ” but we also have online protection principles for your safety”. Trudeau added that it is an “important first step” that could make people across the country “think about their own safety.”

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, expressed disappointment with the move in an email to CBC, noting that the Canadian government did not cite “specific security issues” with the app, in addition for not contacting its officials to share concerns. before making the decision. The video network regretted that because of the ban, officials could not reach the public through “a platform enjoyed by millions of Canadians.”

TikTok ban for Canadian officials and parliamentarians comes amid acrimonious relations between Ottawa and Beijing; Ties that have not returned to normal since the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, vice president of Huawei, at Vancouver airport in December 2018 at the request of Washington for alleged fraud. The executive was released in September 2021, as were two Canadians detained by the Chinese regime in retaliation.

Justin Trudeau and Xi Jinping were filmed in a hostile exchange at the G-20 summit in Bali last November. The Chinese president showed Trudeau his disagreement with an alleged revelation to the media of private conversations. In early February, the United States shot down a Chinese balloon that had also flown over Canadian airspace. China claimed it was a weather instrument, but the Americans dismissed it as a spy balloon. And in recent days, Canadian media have published that Beijing has tried to intervene in the 2021 Canadian federal election. The opposition is demanding that the Trudeau government set up an independent commission to investigate the matter.

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