Canada Orders TikTok to Stop Business Operations Over National Security Concerns

The Wall Street Journal reports authorities in Canada have order social media giant TikTok to stop its business operations in the country, citing national security concerns.

With approximately one billion users worldwide — including 135 million or more in the U.S. — TikTok is regarded as one of the most popular social media platforms on the planet.

However, its parent company ByteDance is headquartered in China, and the platform has come under fire time and again for serving kids a steady “diet of darkness” online and struggling to protect private user data from entities in China, such as the Chinese Communist Party.

In September the Wall Street Journal highlighted how TikTok let accounts linked to the Chinese government spread misleading content targeting U.S. voters ahead of the 2024 election.

Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Justice sued TikTok for allegedly violating federal laws intended to protect children online.

Stories like these — and others — have raise serious concerns about TikTok’s operations.

Last year Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed two lawsuits against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance.

The A.G.’s lawsuits allege that TikTok and ByteDance failed to fully disclose that the company is subject to Chinese laws that mandate cooperation with intelligence activities of the People’s Republic of China and that TikTok aggressively collects sensitive user data.

As we keep saying, social media platforms are not just websites or phone apps. These are multimillion dollar businesses owned and operated by investors and other interests. If the Chinese Communist Party can influence TikTok, the CCP may be able to manipulate content, influence users, and harvest data on one of the world’s largest social media platform. That’s a serious concern.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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