The Ontario government has banned the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from all government devices, following the Government of Canada’s ban last week.
On Thursday, Ontario treasury board president Prabmeet Sarkaria announced TikTok was banned from government devices effective immediately.
“The Ontario government has started the removal of the social media application,” he wrote.
According to Sarkaria’s statement, the ban is precautionary. He said no government device was breached by the Chinese app, but the government is wary and taking concerns seriously.
While other jurisdictions have left public workers free to keep TikTok on personal mobile devices, Sarkaria’s announcement went a step further.
“Also effective immediately, all Ontario [Progressive Conservative] party caucus members will begin the removal of the application from all personal mobile devices,” he wrote.
Ontario is one of many jurisdictions across the country in which officials announced an immediate ban on TikTok – because of threats to data privacy – while also saying no data had been compromised.
The Government of Canada was first to ban TikTok from government devices, saying the app posed unacceptable risks to privacy and security.
Earlier this month, the Alberta government directed the Public Service Commission to immediately ban the installation of TikTok and remove any existing instances of the application from Government of Alberta devices.
US Justice Department officials believe ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, is beholden to Chinese laws that may require the company to assist in surveillance and intelligence operations at the direction of the Chinese government. TikTok has denied the allegations.
