Canada Is Doing Its Own Extremely Weird TikTok Ban

The government of Canada ordered TikTok Technology Canada to dissolve on Wednesday, citing national security concerns. TikTok Technology Canada is the business arm of the Chinese company ByteDance in the country. In a weird move, Ottawa did not order a ban on TikTok itself, and citizens will still be allowed to use the app.

Canada, like the U.S., has been scrutinizing TikTok for a few years now. The argument is that because ByteDance is a Chinese company it’s beholden to the Chinese Communist Party. The app hoovers up the data of those in the West and makes it available to the Red Chinese. Lawmakers and observers have also argued that ByteDance tweaks the algorithm of TikTok in the West so it makes young people stupid while the Chinese version of the app makes them smart.

Those perceptions have led to a string of hearings and legislative battles in the U.S. and Canada. In February of 2023, Ottawa banned TikTok from all government devices and then ordered a national security review of the app. This order to dissolve ByteDance’s Canadian arm is the result of that review.

“We came to the conclusion that these activities that were conducted in Canada by TikTok and their offices would be injurious to national security,” Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne told CBC News.

What, exactly, did Canada find during its national security review? Champagne said you’d just have to trust him. “I’m not at liberty to go into much detail, but I know Canadians would understand when you’re saying the government of Canada is taking measures to protect national security, that’s serious,” he said.

But again, Canada isn’t banning the app outright. Anyone who wants to can still use it. Canada won’t block the app and it won’t stop Canadians from uploading anything to it. “The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice,” Champagne said.

The order means that ByteDance will have to shut down two of its offices in Toronto and Vancouver. A spokesperson for ByteDance told The Washington Post that the move would cost Canada hundreds of jobs. “We will challenge this order in court. The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive,” ByteDance said.

TikTok isn’t faring well in the U.S. either. In 2020, in the last days of his first presidency, Donald Trump signed a vague executive order that prohibited people from doing business with ByteDance. Trump also said he wanted to see another company, like Microsoft, buy the app. The order was challenged in court.

The anti-TikTok sentiment continued during the Biden administration. In 2022, Biden banned TikTok on U.S. government devices. A few days later, he called on ByteDance to sell the app to an American company. Congress has attempted to pass multiple bills banning the app outright. TikTok has repeatedly said it won’t sell its U.S. operations off. Unless TikTok changes its mind, it’s scheduled to go dark on January 19, 2025—just one day before Trump will be sworn into office.

The move against TikTok is part of a broader anti-social media sentiment building across the world. Once perceived as a boon to humanity that will connect the world, there’s a growing perception of social media as an illness at the heart of society. Evidence that it’s addictive and makes people miserable is growing. Concerns about TikTok feeding the Chinese Communist Party data are mirrored in concerns that American tech oligarchs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg do the same with Facebook and X.

Social media companies still largely have free reign in the United States, but many other countries are regulating the technology. In the EU, regulators have repeatedly fined and regulated Meta, YouTube, and X citing concerns about disinformation. In Australia, Parliament is set to consider legislation that would ban X, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for anyone under the age of 16.

“Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when he announced the proposed legislation.