Ottawa should be clear on TikTok fears

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/11/2024 (356 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Government of Canada has taken action against the social media platform TikTok as government concerns over the platform mount — but what that action means, and what the rest of us are to take from it, is unclear.

Earlier this month, the federal government ordered TikTok to dissolve its Canadian business, a move related to a security review of ByteDance, the Chinese company which runs the platform.

However, despite the drastic nature of Ottawa’s edict, it is not barring the platform from the country, nor is it ordering people to leave the app.

It’s a case of mixed messages, to say the least. It’s also more of the same.

Previously, the federal government banned the app from the devices of government-issued devices, citing a risk to privacy and security. Yet it seems content to let the millions of Canadians on the app — an Environics Research poll showed that the app’s reach in Canada was increasing significantly in early 2024 — continue to use it.

There are certainly reasons to be concerned about TikTok’s software crawling over the data and personal details of its users, but those concerns are the same ones we should have about any of the other most commonly used social media sites.

Certainly there are reasons to have the same concerns about, say, X, even before its owner Elon Musk became a confidante to an incoming U.S. president many believe to be an autocrat-in-waiting. Facebook, another big-tent platform, was at the centre of a boondoggle not long ago, in the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal where it was discovered millions of users’ data had been collected without their knowledge.

It seems obvious what the difference is between TikTok, the cause of so much worry for governments both here and in the U.S., versus its competitors: the company that owns TikTok is from China, and not Los Angeles.

All of the social media firms are guilty of subtly or not-so-subtly harvesting data from their users, but in most cases that harvest benefits companies located in a close ally to Canada.

China is not an enemy state, but our relationship with it is strained.

The Canadian government can come down on it without betraying an ally and without rattling Beijing too much. So Ottawa’s half-hearted volleys against one of China’s more successful software exports reeks of performative concern, or even security theatre — yes, Ottawa is very concerned about the security risks posed by TikToks, so they will ban it from government-issued devices, but won’t go so far as to forbid any Canadians from using it, regardless of the sectors in which they work or their positions in them.

Yes, they’ll shutter the local offices, which as TikTok itself pointed out, costs Canadians jobs. But Ottawa will allow millions of Canadians to keep on scrolling.

If the federal government was really that worried about it, it would just ban the app entirely in Canada — as China does with American apps.

All half-measures do is carry the appearance of action while not letting Canadians in on what the concerns really are.

Should we be concerned? Is our data, our privacy, at imminent risk when we use TikTok? Should we delete it?

Ottawa won’t say, not really, and their silence condemns us all to uncertainty and possibly a preventable mess.

If the federal government has something to say about TikTok, or any other platform, it should do so clearly and forcefully — and then it should say what all of us ought to be doing about it. And stop tip-toeing around TikTok.