Saskatchewan bans TikTok from government-owned mobile devices

The Saskatchewan government said Wednesday that TikTok’s time is up on government mobile devices.

“Following discussion with the federal Chief Information Officer and the provincial Information & Privacy Commissioner, the Government of Saskatchewan is banning the TikTok application from all government-owned devices pending the results of the federal threat assessment,” the provincial government said in a media release.

“This direction applies to all ministries, Crowns and agencies, and is also being adopted by the government caucus.”

As of Tuesday, the social media app was banned from all devices owned by the federal government due to ongoing privacy concerns with the app. Quebec announced a similar ban Tuesday.

Last week, provincial and federal privacy watchdogs announced an investigation to delve into whether TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, complies with Canadian privacy legislation.

The decision follows a review by the chief information officer of Canada, who determined that TikTok “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.”

— With files from paNOW and The Canadian Press