Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks

Canada has joined the US and EU in enacting a sweeping ban preventing TikTok from being installed on all government-issued mobile devices, as western officials take action over the Chinese-owned video-sharing app.

In the US, more than half of the states and Congress have banned TikTok from official government devices. On Monday, the White House widened the ban to include all government agencies, giving federal employees 30 days to remove the app from their work devices.

TikTok is wildly popular with young people, but its Chinese ownership has raised fears that Beijing could be collecting data on western users or pushing pro-China narratives and misinformation. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company that moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020.