Jumping on the whole ‘Let’s ban TikTok on our state-owned devices’ in Canada, with the nation of Trudeau becoming the latest jurisdiction to call to ban TikTok on government-owned devices. The Canadian Government is calling on staff to remove the app from all government mobile devices come March 1st, due to concerns around potential data collection and misuse.
Cana-don’t
The decision seemingly follows similar calls from EU security officials last week, along with the increasing prevalence of state bans within the US. The fact that TikTok is owned by Chinese-Cyber Law-compliant media company ByteDance causes concerns about information integrity to linger, with the possibility of the company routing information straight to the CCP. While TikTok itself says that all Canadian user data is stored in Singapore and the US, there have already been examples of ByteDance employees accessing TikTok user data for research purposes.
The decision also comes as tensions between China and the West continue to escalate. Earlier this month, the US ordered a Chinese balloon to be shot down, amid concerns that it was being used to spy on the US and Canada, while rumors of China’s continued support for Russia’s Ukrainian occupation have also put it on a collision course with Western Governments.
Amid this, TikTok is caught in the middle; it doesn’t want to be in the situation it is now, but the grand scheme of things leaves it with little choice. While the bans on government devices won’t necessarily expand to regular users, it does seem to build the case that TikTok is a risk, which may eventually see these actions expanded. For example, the US Government is still weighing a full ban on the app, while UK politicians are now also under the pressure to take action. If one region moves, you can bet that others will follow suit, especially among allied nations, which could see TikTok effectively wiped out, just as fast, if not faster, than its rise to fame.
At least in this scenario, adopting a more ‘parts of the whole’ perspective might help legislators arrive at a more equal decision – TikTok might be owned by a heavily influenced Chinese company, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it conforms to the same rules that its parent does. Of course, content and culture are entirely separate things, but those necessarily have nothing to do with state affiliation.
The Wrap
It’s hard to tell just where things might go. On balance, one would assume that a compromise is possible – with so much money on the line, it seems, at worst, TikTok could be sold off to a US-based company to ensure that user data remains securely within America. But again, things could go awry at the drop of a hat. Either way, expanding bans on government devices certainly doesn’t bode well for the app’s future, at least with how things are for it currently.
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