The City of Montreal has ordered its employees and elected officials to stop using the TikTok application on the mobile devices it provides them. In the wake of this directive, the TikTok account of Mayor Valérie Plante has been deactivated.
“Although the preliminary analysis carried out by our teams concludes that the risk is low for the moment, we want to act preventively. We will take the time to continue our reflection and deepen our analysis of the situation before officially deciding on the long-term use of the TikTok application on the mobile devices provided to staff members,” indicates the Service des technologies de the information in a message sent to city employees on Thursday.
In Mayor Plante’s office, it is indicated that Valérie Plante’s TikTok account, which had 2,280 subscribers, has been put in private mode and has been deactivated.
The City of Montreal is therefore following in the footsteps of many governments, both in Canada and elsewhere in the world, which have prohibited the use of this application by their officials due to data protection concerns.
Chinese-owned TikTok regularly comes under suspicion from intelligence agencies, who fear the app could be used as spyware for Beijing.
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