yellow knife –
Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, Canada’s latest jurisdictions, have announced bans on TikTok on government-issued devices pending a federal threat assessment.
The NWT says its ban went into effect on Friday, following the lead of the federal government and several states.
Nunavut said access to its video-sharing platform was blocked on all networks as of Tuesday.
Ottawa announced last week that it would ban TikTok from government-owned devices following an overhaul of social media apps by Canada’s chief information officer.
Catherine Luelo has determined that it poses an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.
Nine other provinces have since followed suit, with Ontario saying it is considering a ban.
The Yukon government has also said it is considering a ban, but currently has no policy.
Federal and state privacy watchdogs recently announced a joint investigation into whether TikTok complies with Canadian privacy laws.
The Nunavut government has said the ban is an interim measure pending a full federal assessment by security teams. It is said that he manages a small number of mobile phones.
The NWT government has said it decided to ban TikTok based on several risk factors.
The Chinese government has a stake in TikTok owner ByteDance, and Chinese law allows the state to request access to user data.
The company that owns TikTok claims it does not share data with the Chinese government and that data is not held in China.
Federal, state, and territory officials say they have no evidence that government data was compromised using TikTok.
This report by the Canadian Press was first published on March 8, 2023.
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This article was produced with financial support from the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
