TikTok Takes Canada to Court Over Shutdown Order

Wed Dec 11 2024
Advertisement
TikTok has decided to fight back against Canada's decision to make it shut down its business in the country. The company filed a case in Vancouver's Federal Court on December 5, hoping to overturn the government's order. Why did Canada do this? Because of concerns about national security, linked to TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, in China. The Canadian government isn't stopping people from using the TikTok app. It just wants TikTok Technology Canada Inc. to close its operations. This includes offices in Toronto and Vancouver, where about 14 million Canadians use the app. That's nearly a third of the country's population! ByteDance, which owns TikTok, moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020. But there's still a lot of pressure on TikTok in Western countries. The U. S. might ban it, and Europe is watching closely too, especially after some election influence campaigns were linked to Russia. In its court application, TikTok said the government's decision was unfair and not based on good reasons. The company thinks the order is too harsh and that the review process wasn't fair. TikTok also said the government didn't even talk to them about the reasons for the order. The government, on the other hand, said their decision was based on a thorough review of national security concerns. They didn't give many details, though. TikTok thinks there are better ways to handle the security issues without shutting down its business. They worry that closing down will cost a lot of jobs and businesses, and hurt the economy.