In a decision on Wednesday, the Canadian government called on the owner of TikTok to close its local office and liquidate all kinds of local corporate presence in the country. The step, which at first seems rather drastic, can be a kind of main test of what can await the social giant in the United States from January, when the provisions of the law signed by the president in April, affecting the foundations of TikTok’s operation, must be applied.
In a statement, the Canadian Minister of Innovation, Francois-Philippe Champagne, justified the liquidation of ByteDance’s interest in Canada by saying that the local operation of the Chinese multinational through TikTok Technology Canada Inc poses a certain, not specifically defined, national security risk for the country.
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Last year, the Canadian government began to review ByteDance’s investment and development plans in the North American country using its legal authority. According to the statement of the competent ministry, the closure of the local representative office was ordered based on the information and evidence obtained by the government during this investigation, partly following the advice of the local professional services.
The government’s decision was immediately sharply criticized by the local representative of TikTok, which announced that it will go to court in order to annul the decree. According to the social service provider, the closing of the local office, thereby eliminating hundreds of jobs, cannot really be in anyone’s interest.
Canada has previously banned the use of the social platform application on smartphones used by government employees, however, an important clause regarding the current decision is that the TikTok application will not be banned from Canadian application marketplaces.
However, this can wait for TikTok from the beginning of next year in the United States, where ByteDance has until January 19 to sell the local subsidiary, including all the databases containing the data of American users, to an American entity.
Source: www.hwsw.hu
