Canadians shouldn’t worry about TikTok security review: Champagne

The federal industry minister says Canadians shouldn’t worry about using TikTok, despite an ongoing national security review of the company.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne was asked at a press conference Friday whether Canadians using the app, including parents whose kids are obsessed with TikTok, should be worried.

“The answer is no. And I think Canadians and parents should be happy to see that we were ahead of the curve,” he said about launching the review six months ago.

Champagne was asked later why the government kept its review a secret if there was nothing for parents to worry about.

He said that when he spoke about whether they should be “concerned,” he was referring to “actions being taken with respect to the company.”

Anything that happens as a result of the review would be “directed at the company and not the users,” he said.

The federal Liberals ordered the national security review of TikTok in September 2023 but did not disclose it publicly until this week.

The revelation came after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.

Champagne said the government would follow that bill carefully. He noted it “still has some way to go before it would become law,” referring to the need for it to pass in the U.S. Senate.

TikTok is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.

The concern driving the U.S. bill is that because of Chinese national security laws that compel organizations to assist with intelligence gathering, the Chinese government could demand access to the data of TikTok’s American consumers.

Champagne’s office has asserted that the six-month-old Canadian review is not related to the U.S.