The National Assembly has finally decided to ban its administrative staff from using TikTok, a directive which does not apply to the 125 deputies, even if it “strongly recommends” that they do the same.
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Twenty-four hours after the decision made by Ottawa, the President of the National Assembly had to decide whether the Quebec Parliament would follow suit in the House of Commons, which communicated its decision Tuesday morning, in the wake of the directive imposed on civil servants in Quebec and Ottawa.
A meeting on the security issues posed by the Chinese-designed social network took place at the National Assembly on Tuesday morning, but it took until early evening before the guidelines were published.
“As a preventive measure, due to cybersecurity issues related to the use of the TikTok application, the National Assembly of Quebec no longer allows its administrative staff to install this application on National Assembly devices or to use these to use the application”, indicated the Quebec Parliament.
“This measure aims to prevent risks to the security of institutional information. In the same preventive approach, the National Assembly strongly recommends that deputies and their staff act in this way,” adds the National Assembly.
Tanguay deletes his account
As of Monday evening, the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec, Marc Tanguay, had asked the deputies of his caucus to eliminate TikTok from their mobile devices in addition to asking them to no longer feed the platform via their respective accounts.
Mr. Tanguay even made the decision to completely delete his account, which was inactive anyway.
PHOTO: MARTIN ALARIE / QMI AGENCY
At the time of writing these lines, the CAQ parliamentary wing had not yet decided whether its deputies will have to permanently delete their TikTok accounts. The Prime Minister’s Office confirms, however, that ministers have been asked to stop feeding the Chinese platform until further notice.
François Legault’s official account was still active at the time of publishing. A new video showing the chief caquiste encouraging young people to pursue careers in the fields of construction and health was even added at the beginning of the week, before the decision of Ottawa fell.
In government, ministers Sonia LeBel, Jean-François Roberge and Ian Lafrenière also frequently posted content on TikTok.
precautionary measure
In an interview Tuesday morning at LCN, the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital, Éric Caire, confirmed that the decision taken on Monday morning to ban the TikTok application on the devices of Quebec government officials, s also applies to members of the Council of Ministers. This directive has been in effect since Tuesday.
“It’s really preventive,” explained Minister Caire, stressing that the government has “no reason, no evidence, no case that leads us to believe that we have been leaked”.
He still fears, like several experts, that TikTok “is a gateway” that can allow others to access sensitive data, such as emails or files shared with other applications such as Teams.
“It’s an unlocked door, hidden in the basement that you can’t watch,” said Mr. Cairo.
Should Quebecers consider taking a break from TikTok? “It’s up to the citizen to assess whether he thinks it applies to him,” said Mr. Caire.
Considering all the “potential for mental health problems” associated with social networks, PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon believes that it would be appropriate to take advantage of it to “ask questions” about the phenomenon. “We are going to follow suit,” he assured TVA Nouvelles, before the National Assembly made its decision known. Québec solidaire also intends to comply.