Juno News - December 19, 2022Should we ban TikTok in Canada？
Episode Stats
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180.96774
Summary
Should TikTok be banned in Canada? That s a question more and more people are asking themselves, and apparently security agencies in Canada are even looking into the issue. Based on concerns that the company that's based out of China is just way too cozy with the Chinese government, TikTok can t be trusted. And TikTok s already getting up to some sketchy things.
Transcript
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Should the Canadian government consider banning the social media platform TikTok?
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That's a question more and more people are asking themselves,
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and apparently security agencies in Canada are even looking into the issue.
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The U.S. is actually proposing, courtesy of some lawmakers,
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Based on concerns that the company that's based out of China
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is just way too cozy with the Chinese government,
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TikTok can't be trusted, and TikTok's already getting up to some sketchy things.
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Republican lawmakers have proposed the legislation,
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but it's a bipartisan bill they've got backing from others,
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The U.S. government in general has some concerns about TikTok.
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This is not something that is a particularly partisan approach,
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particularly after we see U.S. President Joe Biden's administration
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picking up the ball where Donald Trump left off in terms of decoupling from China.
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And one of the concerns is the degree to which various Chinese companies and tech entities
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have their tentacles into the American way of life.
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And that discussion is migrating up here to Canada.
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A newly released study actually says that TikTok is proving harmful to young people,
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particularly teenage girls, because of how the algorithms work
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and the sort of content that they're pushing in the way that it's harmful.
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One study found that within 30 minutes of an account being set up for a teenage girl,
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they are flooded with content about weight loss and eating disorders,
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the sort of stuff that can cause young women to adopt eating disorders,
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leading a whole bunch of people to ask, what on earth is going on here?
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based on concerns that they may be acting at the behest of the Chinese government.
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We've had a lot of conversations recently in Canada the past couple of years
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about both Chinese state-owned enterprises getting too involved in Canadian society
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and also companies that may not be Chinese state-owned enterprises.
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They may be privately owned companies in China,
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but the way the laws work there, the way things generally operate,
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these companies, the private ones, are still expected to divulge a lot of information
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to the Chinese Communist Party's authoritarian government based out of Beijing
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U.S. government documents have actually previously accused
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the former head of TikTok of just being a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party.
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Prime Minister Justin Chido has basically acknowledged
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are certainly taking a look at what's going on with TikTok.
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Back in the day, we talked about just having a Facebook account,
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Now, there's a whole variety of new social media entities,
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and people are concerned about the way some of them are affecting our daily lives,
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and in the case of ones that are based in China,