• Canada has banned TikTok operations in the country.
• Citizens can still access the app but TikTok can no longer conduct business in the country.
• Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne said the decision comes as a result of a national security review.

China-based ByteDance and its hugely popular app TikTok are staring down the barrel of a ban in the United States. But things just got bad for the company in the Great White North.

Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, announced on Wednesday that following a national security review, ByteDance’s Canadian operations represent a national security risk.

Strangely, it’s only TikTok’s operations that are now banned in the country and citizens can still access the app freely.

“The government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content. The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice. It is important for Canadians to adopt good cyber security practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply,” writes Champagne.

The government official doesn’t go into much detail regarding the ban of TikTok’s operations. The only thing said is that the decision is based on “information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners.”

However, Champagne urges citizens to assess the possible risks of using foreign platforms and consider how their information is being used. We’d like to point out at this juncture that Facebook, Twitter (X) and in fact all major social media platforms are based in the US, and as such, are foreign platforms. Odd that Champagne isn’t banning Meta from operating in Canada despite numerous examples of those platforms being manipulated and compromised.

As you might expect, TikTok wasn’t pleased with this decision.

“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. We will challenge this order in court,” a spokesperson for the platform told CBC.

In the US, TikTok faces a ban based on allegations that it shares US citizen data with the Chinese government. Despite the application continuously and rigorously denying these allegations, TikTok may be banned in the US in January unless ByteDance sells the platform.

On that note, ByteDance hasn’t announced that it would sell the platform but has said it could just exit the market entirely. That would be a bold move but in the context of the wider global market, it’s one that would ultimately make sense.