Canada TikTok ban: Canada shuts TikTok’s offices over national security risks

The Canadian government on Wednesday directed the video app TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese tech giant, to close its offices in the country because of national security risks. The app, hugely popular around the world, will still be available for people to use in Canada, according to François-Philippe Champagne, the innovation minister.

The decision, based on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community, was meant to address the risks posed by ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, Champagne said.

Canadian law provides for extra official scrutiny of foreign investments that could endanger national security, Champagne said.

TikTok said it intends to challenge the order in court.

“Shutting down TikTok’s Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of well-paying local jobs is not in anyone’s best interest, and today’s shutdown order will do just that,” the company said. According to postings on LinkedIn and other online sources, offices in Toronto and Vancouver were staffed by employees who sold advertising and worked on the app.

TikTok faces an outright ban in the United States as soon as January, over government concerns about security, data privacy and misinformation. As TikTok’s influence with young people has become inescapable, lawmakers in Washington have expressed concern that China could use the app to fuel misinformation. They are also worried that the app could share sensitive user data like location and browsing history with the Chinese government.

These concerns and others have prompted governments around the world to scrutinize TikTok. The governments of Britain, Australia, France and Taiwan, as well as the executive arm of the European Union and New Zealand’s Parliament, have banned the app from official devices. India, once home to TikTok’s largest audience, banned the app in 2020 after a geopolitical dispute with China.

Canada banned TikTok from government-issued mobile devices last year. But the app has remained one of the most popular in Canada, where it has been downloaded about 700,000 times a month in recent months, according to data from SimilarWeb, a firm that tracks web traffic.

Forcing the company to close its offices rather than banning the app could make it more difficult for the government to address its concerns, Michael Geist, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa, wrote in a blog post.

“The risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened,” Geist said.