What a TikTok ban could mean for Canadians — and could it happen here?

For Canadian comedian Darcy Michael, TikTok became a way to not only share his standup routines, but also build a community with those on the app.

But for U.S. lawmakers and Canadian security officials, the app poses a significant threat both to privacy and national security because its parent company ByteDance is Chinese-owned.

As the U.S. inches closer to a potential ban of the application, Michael says restrictions on the app could have a big impact on Canadian content creators who’ve found audiences through it.

“I think it would take us a little bit back to square one, where I was always trying to reach my audience,” he told Global News.

Michael is currently on a North American tour, which he says saw him sell more than 50,000 tickets without a publicist or marketing team, using TikTok to market the shows.

With 3.2 million followers on the app, Michael says any possibility of Canada following in the U.S. footsteps would be concerning.

“I think it would be detrimental to musicians and artists of all kind, but also small businesses,” he said.

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share TikTok user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with China’s authoritarian government.

A 2017 Chinese law requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to the country’s national security, though the law is murky about what that threshold is.

A September 2022 intelligence brief reported on by The Canadian Press under access-to-information law also provided fresh insight into Canadian government concerns about TikTok.

The report said the brief by the Privy Council Office’s intelligence assessment secretariat says TikTok is the first