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Nunavut and the Western Territories are the latest jurisdictions in Canada to announce that they are banning TikTok on government-issued devices pending a federal threat assessment.
The NWT said its ban took place on Friday, following the guidance of the federal government and several provinces.
Nunavut said access to the video-sharing platform was blocked on all of its networks as of Wednesday.
Ottawa announced last week that it was banning TikTok from government devices following a review of the social media app by Canada’s chief information officer.
Catherine Luelo concluded that it posed an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.
Nine provinces have followed suit, while Ontario says it is considering a ban.
Yukon’s Minister of Roads and Public Works told the conference that workers will be notified of its ban on March 2.
Federal and provincial privacy watchdogs recently announced a joint investigation into whether TikTok complies with Canadian privacy laws.
The Nunavut government says its ban is temporary until its security team reviews a full assessment by the federal government. He said he manages a small number of mobile phones.
The NWT government said it decided to ban TikTok based on several risk factors, particularly the app’s data collection methods, which “could provide complete access” to the content of the devices it is downloaded on, which making them more vulnerable to surveillance.
Nils Clarke, Yukon’s Minister of Roads and Public Works, said his department has the power to delete specific applications from government cell phones and prevent them from being downloaded. The local government said that before the ban was issued, no one in his cabinet had TikTok on their government-issued devices.
The Chinese government has a stake in TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, and Chinese laws allow the country to demand access to user data.
The company that owns TikTok maintains that it does not share data with the Chinese government and that its data is not held in that country.
Federal, state and local officials have said there is no evidence that government data has been compromised through the use of TikTok.
This report by The Canadian Press was originally published on March 8, 2023.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of Meta and the Canadian Press News Fellowship.