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Canadian Government to Ban TikTok (the Company not the App)

November 6, 2024

The Canadian government has just announced the conclusion of its national security review of TikTok and arrived at a curious conclusion: it plans to ban the company from operating in Canada but the app will remain available here. I wrote earlier this year about the need for better laws to counter the risks associated with TikTok, rather than banning the app altogether. That post came in response to U.S. legislation that proposed to ban the app, but which is now in doubt given the results of yesterday’s U.S. Presidential election. There may well be good reasons to ban the app if it poses security and privacy risks that differ from those of other platforms, but banning the company rather than the app may actually make matters worse since the risks associated with the app will remain but the ability to hold the company accountable will be weakened.

The decision would also seem to undercut the government’s digital policies, including the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11) and the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63). TikTok appeared before the Ethics Committee late last month on disinformation, intervened at the CRTC on the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, and would presumably have played a role in hearings on online harms (if those occur). Nothing stops the company from submitting to these processes from outside of the country, but it is hard to envision it prioritizing (or perhaps even complying) with Canadian regulatory processes if it is banned from formally operating in the jurisdiction. Moreover, TikTok will likely promote that it has spent significant money on Canadian cultural policy initiatives, with a particular focus on music and indigenous creators. Much like the Meta withdrawal from news and its associated agreements, it is similarly unlikely it will continue to provide that support in light of the corporate ban.

If there are real security and privacy issues – and Minister Champagne says there are – the government should surely take action. But as Ron Deibert of the Citizen Lab noted last year in calling out TikTok’s use of his lab’s research:

The conversation about potential privacy and national security concerns with TikTok should serve as a reminder that most social media apps are unacceptably invasive-by-design, treat users as raw material for personal data surveillance, and fall short on transparency about their data sharing practices. This is why comprehensive privacy legislation is desperately needed.

The government’s efforts to provide comprehensive privacy safeguards have stalled in the House of Commons and now face the prospect of not passing before an election call. This is due in part to the ill-advised decision to combine long-overdue privacy reforms with AI regulation. Today’s announcement doesn’t solve the larger privacy issue facing Canadians and may ironically make matters worse by weakening the ability to hold TikTok accountable for the privacy and security of Canadians.