Due to security reasons, Canada is banning TikTok on government devices. This decision means that government employees are not allowed to have the TikTok application installed on work computers and provided phones by the government.
Canada foresees a security threat stemming from TikTok. This video-sharing social media application is so powerful to inspire and empower both content creators and watchers, but the app is replete with hidden features that can collect data from users without their consent, as alleged.
Various legal proceedings have already accused TikTok of collecting biometric data from users, “including facial geometry, iris scans, voice recognition, and fingerprints.” TikTok is heavily used by young people, and Canadians are no exception. Research conducted in 2022 about TikTok’s use by Canadians found that younger people use the platform more than older generations. Here is a brief statics based on an age group: 18-29, 43%; 30-39, 33%; 40-49, 13%; 50-64, 11%. The older someone is, the less he or she is engaged in TikTok.
The government of Canada cites security concerns and is fearful that TikTok might exploit informational data collected from the country’s residents to push for pro-China narratives and misinformation. Therefore, “The federal government is removing and blocking the video-sharing platform TikTok from all federal government devices, citing security reasons.” Downloading the app on government devices will be denied, too. “The Canadian treasury board president, Mona Fortier, said the federal government would also block the app from being downloaded on official devices in the future.”
The Western States, Canada included, allege that China takes advantage of TikTok and uses it as a vehicle with which to collect vital data that will advance its interest in the end. Consequently, Western countries have banned the TikTok application, alerting their citizens to the looming threats posed by the application.
Intelligible warnings indicate that TikTok collects unnecessary data from its users and spies on them. “The man who oversees cyber security for the federal government says Canadians should be wary of apps that could leave their data in the “wrong hands”.
TikTok is a popular social media application owned by a Chinese Internet technology company founded in 2012. However, the wide use of TikTok became available in August 2018. The company’s founder named Zhang YiMing is the brain behind TikTok, which has dominated young people’s arena. This internet entrepreneur man was born in 1983 to a working Chinese family, but he has risen from rags to riches, so to speak.
His social media app hosts short videos that range from 7 seconds to 10 minutes in length. “TikTok allows users to watch, create, and share short videos online.” It has over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide and is envisioning rapid growth.
Individuals, businesses, and political entities take advantage of the application’s capabilities which help them create empowering, influencing, and entertaining videos. Many people do, nevertheless, misuse the application because they create unethical, misleading videos and disseminate them to unwary viewers. Like other social media platforms, TikTok is a double-edged sword after all. How it is used is the essence, though.