Even as the ban announced by Ottawa on using the app TikTok on Government-issued devices went into effect on Tuesday, Canada’s Parliament said it will institute a similar prohibition.
The Federal Government ban was announced on Monday. A day later, the House of Commons issued a statement saying its Administration has “informed all users of House-managed devices that the mobile application TikTok may no longer be installed, effective March 3, 2023, at 9:00 pm.”
It asked parliamentary users to remove the application from their House of Commons-provided devices “as soon as possible” and said the decision “follows a series of consultations with national security partners and is aligned with similar action taken by other jurisdictions and institutions.” A similar ban is also being put in place by the upper chamber, the Senate.
The Bank of Canada is also barring the use of the short video sharing app on staff devices.
At the same time, two provincial governments, Quebec and British Columbia, have also taken such measures. Lisa Beare, BC’s Minister of Citizens’ Services and Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport, British Columbia tweeted, “Effective immediately, the TikTok app will not be permitted from government-issued mobile devices. Protection of government data and networks is a top priority for this Ministry. B.C. has an expert team dedicated to protecting systems from intrusions and security risks.”
The nodal agency, the Treasury Board Secretariat, has already instructed all members of the ruling Liberal Party caucus to remove the app from their devices. The principal opposition Conservative Party said they were taking such action, including suspending the TikTok account of its leader Pierre Poilievre. The Bloc Québécois has also said it will comply. New Democratic Party or NDP leader Jagmeet Singh also said his TikTok account will be deactivated. However, Singh, who has nearly 880,000 followers on the social media platform described the move as a “pause.”
A release issued by the Treasury Board Secretariat on Monday said the decision to “remove and block TikTok from government mobile devices is being taken as a precaution, particularly given concerns about the legal regime that governs the information collected from mobile devices, and is in line with the approach of our international partners. On a mobile device, TikTok’s data collection methods provide considerable access to the contents of the phone.”
The concerns are related to the app’s owner ByteDance, which is based in China and amid new security norms from Beijing which can compel companies to share information and data when demanded.
