What happened to… TikTok security concerns?
Global News
On this bonus episode of 'What happened to…?,' Erica Vella looks at ongoing security concerns that surround the short-form video app TikTok.
On this bonus episode of What happened to…?, Erica Vella looks at ongoing security concerns that surround the short-form video app TikTok.
TikTok is one of the most popular apps around the world, with more than one billion people using the app each month, but in February, Canada’s federal government announced a ban of the app on government devices.
It’s a move several countries have made in recent months.
“I think the concerns are sort of twofold. It does all kind of tie back to the ownership structure — ByteDance, like many Chinese firms, the Chinese Communist Party has some sort of representation within the company,” said Brett Caraway, a professor of media economics at the University of Toronto.
“I think that a lot of the concerns that are circulating around ByteDance and TikTok right now are very much part of a sort of escalation in tensions between China and the West…. There are concerns around the amount of information or data that a platform like TikTok … collects.”
On Feb. 27, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau announced the Canadian government would ban TikTok on all government-issued mobile devices.
“We are making the decision that for government employees and government equipment, it is better to not have them access TikTok because of the concerns people have over safety,” Trudeau said.
“This may be a first step and it may be the only step we need to take but every step of the way we are going to be making sure we are keeping Canadians safe.”
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