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With all eyes on how the new Trump administration in the US will interact with China Tech in the coming years, its neighbor to the north has dealt a blow to one of the biggest apps to come out of the country.
Canada has commander Closing of ByteDance’s operations in Canada – specifically the offices of TikTok Technology Canada, Inc. – Due to national security risks. These risks do not extend to the app itself: consumers can still download, use and create content for TikTok, and companies can still advertise on it. “The decision to use a social media application or platform is a personal choice,” François-Philippe Champagne, the country’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said in a statement.
The statement did not specify more about the security risks. But the company has been under scrutiny for years over how it handles user data on the platform. Critics variously claim that China is collecting user data in ways that cannot be fully audited. TikTok has repeatedly denied this.
TikTok said in a statement to TechCrunch that the closure is affecting “hundreds” of jobs in Canada. It intends to appeal the decision.
“Closing TikTok’s Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of good-paying local jobs is not in anyone’s best interest, and today’s closure order will do just that,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We will challenge this in court. The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests, and for businesses to thrive.”
The company has been hiring recently for dozens of roles Operations, engineering and marketing Across different locations in the country.
Tik Tok, for one appreciationIt has about 15 million users in Canada, and hacks about 41% of the population. Consistent with how it is used elsewhere, 18- to 24-year-olds are the most engaged adults, according to researchers. Electronic marketer. But this study doesn’t include kids, who as we know love TikTok too. It is a controversial issue in itself due to concerns about children’s mental health.
Despite its huge popularity, TikTok has been simmering in hot water in Canada for some time. This latest development is the result of a national security review under the Invest in Canada Act. This review occurred after Canada banned the use of TikTok on all government devices in February 2023. This ban remains in place.
The company’s unstable situation in the country may also have had an impact on how further services were developed there. It was TikTok Shop, the company’s in-app e-commerce platform for buying and selling goods Expected to be released In Canada by the end of 2023, but it did Haven’t done that yet. the Creator Rewards Programto pay creators, also has It wasn’t released there either.
Canada is not the only country making efforts to control TikTok.
In addition to the issues facing TikTok specifically in other countries, the app is also being included in a broader re-evaluation of social media in general. Just yesterday, the government in Australia announced a proposal for a ban everyone Social media for under 16s.
International government interest in national security and TikTok actually began during the last Trump administration, when the president laid out a plan to ban the app in the country — where it now has 170 million users — unless its operations there were spun off and sold to the United States. American entity. Four years later, the case is still ongoing, as TikTok has appealed a signed order to sell the app’s US operations by January 2025.
No one can guess what will happen next, because Trump, ironically, reversed course over the summer. “I’m with TikTok because you need to compete,” he said. July After joining the application itself.
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