Canada joins US and Europe in blocking TikTok on government workers’ cell phones

Several countries are taking restrictive measures on the use of TikTok on government devices used by high-ranking officials. First came the European Union and on Monday the United States took the same decision. Yesterday, Canada also joined this ban because the application presents “an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”

Mona Fortier, chair of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, said Monday that as of Tuesday no government cell phone would be allowed to have the Chinese app owned by ByteDance installed. As she explained in a statement, the platform would be removed from devices on which it was already downloaded and would be prohibited from doing so.

The decision to remove and block TikTok from government smartphones. was taken as a “precaution”. Fortier stressed that there were “concerns about the legal regime governing information collected from mobile devices and is in line with the approach of our international partners.”

So far, the Canadian government is not aware of any information having been compromised by TikTok.but they have nevertheless chosen to take action. In addition, they have assured that their new policy will not prevent civil servants from installing the social network on their personal cell phones.

TikTok’s spokeswoman in Canada, Danielle Morgan, expressed disappointment at the government restriction. “without citing any specific security issues” or contacting the company beforehand.. He also showed rejection for the direct mention of TikTok, as it gives the app a bad image.

Sign up for our newsletter and receive in your inbox the latest news about technology.