After the federal government announced Monday it's banning TikTok from government-issued mobile devices, an official with the Ontario government said it's considering doing the same.
“It’s something that we’re currently reviewing,” Treasury Board spokesman Ian Allen told The Trillium.
The federal ban comes after a group of the country's privacy commissioners launched an investigation into the app and the chief information officer of Canada determined that TikTok "presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security."
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the federal government ban might encourage people and businesses to reflect on the security of their own data.
"I'm always a fan of giving Canadians the information for them to make the right decisions for them," Trudeau said.
The video platform has long been embroiled in privacy concerns because the Chinese government has a stake in its owner, ByteDance, and laws allow the country to access user data.
The ban comes at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions with China.
Earlier this month, the U.S. shot down a Chinese high-altitude balloon that had also flown through Canadian airspace, saying it was a suspected spy device. China's government has said it was a weather balloon that went off course.
On Monday, Trudeau defended MP Han Dong, an Ontario MPP from 2014 to 2018 who was elected as a federal Liberal MP in 2019 and re-elected in 2021. A Global News report alleges, citing national security sources, Dong was part of a Chinese foreign interference network.
"One of the things we've seen, unfortunately, over the past years is a rise in anti-Asian racism linked to the pandemic, or concerns ... arising around people's loyalties," Trudeau said. "I want to make everyone understand fully, Han Dong is an outstanding member of our team and suggestions that he is somehow not loyal to Canada should not be entertained."
And he pushed back against an allegation in the Global report that CSIS had urged Trudeau’s team to rescind Dong’s candidacy.
"In a free democracy, it is not up to unelected security officials to dictate to political parties who can or cannot run," said Trudeau. "That's a really important principle."
Trudeau had been asked, but did not answer, whether CSIS had warned him about Dong.
—With files from The Canadian Press
