Juno News - It’s time for Canada to ban TikTok

00:00:00.000 The end is near for TikTok as we know it. Over the last week, American President Donald Trump

00:00:13.080 has signaled he will ban the Chinese-owned social media application completely by September 15,

00:00:19.080 2020. That is, unless a very secure, and in its own words, very American company,

00:00:25.560 buys the American leg of the app from the Beijing firm ByteDance. This is, of course, a good thing.

00:00:33.900 While appearing as a seemingly harmless social networking application, TikTok actually poses

00:00:40.740 as a huge security risk to its users, including hundreds of thousands of Canadians, whose sensitive

00:00:47.460 personal information could be easily shared with the Chinese Communist state. Specifically, an

00:00:53.880 investigation by an American think tank in January 2019 found that the use of the app requires

00:00:59.460 consenting to a privacy policy that allows TikTok to harvest significant data on its users, including

00:01:05.700 their location, images, and biometric data. As a Beijing-located company, ByteDance is under

00:01:12.600 a legal obligation to share any information with the Communist Chinese regime, who already

00:01:18.000 have a long record of state-sponsored hacking and cyber-espionage, if requested. TikTok is

00:01:24.940 also known for promoting false Chinese narratives, including praising China for their handling

00:01:30.180 of COVID-19, while also silencing users who promote anti-state ideas, like support for Democratic

00:01:37.660 protesters in Hong Kong. If the ban occurs, the US will be the second country to explicitly ban

00:01:45.000 the social media app after India banned TikTok last month following a border flash. In doing

00:01:51.400 so, India similarly cited privacy concerns, including how using the app would threaten their national

00:01:57.180 security.

00:01:59.520 As the US continues progressing to the September 15th ban date, it's clear that Canada should

00:02:05.260 also do the same. Canadian privacy rights are more important than inflating the pockets

00:02:10.760 of a Chinese state-owned company, and certainly not worth sacrificing for some mindless entertainment.

00:02:17.660 However, do not expect any proposal for a ban in Canada to be without serious resistance,

00:02:24.240 as TikTok has already started gearing up to increase lobbying efforts in Canada. Most recently,

00:02:30.440 TikTok hired the former head of public policy for Amazon Canada to serve as their director

00:02:35.660 of government affairs. The job posting for this position, as we found on LinkedIn, showed TikTok

00:02:42.460 looking for an experienced candidate who can build a relationship with elected officials and advocate

00:02:47.900 policy positions that benefit and protect the TikTok user community. Unfortunately, without serious

00:02:55.580 reform that would need to include separating completely from the Chinese entity, what is good for the

00:03:00.860 TikTok community will be bad for Canadians. Specifically, those among us who would prefer our information is

00:03:07.340 kept private and far away from the communist state.

Juno News - August 07, 2020