Quebec, in turn, bans TikTok from government phones

The Quebec government followed suit at the federal level on Monday evening, and in turn announced that it would ban TikTok installations on government phones starting Tuesday.

• Also read: Ottawa bans TikTok from government phones starting Tuesday

• Also read: Social media can be “too dangerous” for young people

The Minister of Cybersecurity and the Numérique, Eric Cayer, made the announcement in a press release published in the evening.

All government-owned cell phones used by civil servants are affected by this new measure, which turned out to be a copy of an ordinance Ottawa issued Monday morning.

“In light of the research and analysis that has been done on the use of TikTok, it seems necessary for us to apply the precautionary principle and not allow the installation and use of this application at the present time,” the minister added.

It was not immediately clear if the measure concerned local elected officials. At the federal level, the decision only concerned government employees, but significantly prompted elected governors – including leader Pierre Poilievre – to delete their TikTok accounts.

Public servants with non-government mobile phones can continue to use the short video sharing application.

“The use of social media for personal use and on non-government devices remains a personal and assumed choice,” the Department of Cyber ​​and Digital Security said.

The Canadian and US governments are concerned about what the Chinese company behind TikTok might do with data collected on the sidelines of the app’s use.