Quebec is following Ottawa’s lead and will also ban the installation and use of the popular social network TikTok on the mobile devices of its civil servants.
This measure “of a preventive nature” was decreed Monday evening by the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital, Éric Caire, and will take effect from Tuesday.
“This is a preventive ban. There is no evidence that a foreign country would spy on government employees using this application,” he said in a statement.
Unlike Ottawa, where the President of the Treasury Board was concerned earlier about the “unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security” presented by TikTok, Quebec presents a more posed approach.
“Recall that to date, no evidence shows that a foreign country would spy on government employees through this application, or even that private or government data would have been stolen by foreign interests,” explains the firm. of Minister Éric Caire.
“In light of the research and analyzes carried out concerning the use of TikTok, it seems necessary to us to apply the precautionary principle and no longer allow the installation and use of this application for the moment”, adds this last.
Quebec then relies on the good judgment of citizens to decide whether or not to install the application of the Chinese giant ByteDance, “the use of social media in a personal capacity and on devices not linked to the government [demeurant] a personal and assumed choice.
Recall that this announcement comes just hours after the federal government announced that starting Tuesday, TikTok will be removed from the mobile devices of its officials.