TikTok is pushing back against its ban in Canada by asking a federal court in Vancouver to pause the shutdown order while it challenges the government’s case and attempts to keep active in Canada.
Earlier this year, the Canadian federal government ordered TikTok to shut down its Canadian offices. This would allow the app to remain functional for Canadian creators on the platform but would give the company less of a hold in the Canadian marketplace.
Now TikTok is pushing back, claiming that it provides hundreds of Canadians with well-paying jobs and contributes millions of dollars to the Canadian economy. It also says that via TikTok’s app, Canadian content creators can reach a global audience of over a billion monthly users.
That being said, TikTok is still allowed to operate its app here, so unless the company decides to pull it in retaliation to the government’s shutdown order, Canadian creators shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
TikTok’s court documents also state that Minister François-Philippe Champagne didn’t engage with the company on the substance of the ban. It also said the government order to shutdown operations bears “no rational connection” to the national security risks behind the ban. However, in the original report, the government shared very few details about the specifics of those national security risks.
At the end of the CBC News report on the ban, TikTok is once again quoted saying that the ban “will cause the destruction of significant economic opportunities and intangible benefits to Canadian creators, artists and businesses, and the Canadian cultural community more broadly.” Which again, leads me to think that the company is threatening to pull out of Canada completely if things don’t go its way.
Source: CBC News
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