Sault Ste. Marie joins others, will ban TikTok on city devices

As hostility and suspicion grows in the West toward China, some cities in northern Ontario are joining other governments in banning the use of TikTok on municipal phones and devices.

The social media app has surged in popularity at a time when tensions are soaring between several nations and China, which owns TikTok. Many governments, including Canada, have already banned its use on mobile devices.

The matter was debated Monday in Sault Ste. Marie, where councillors approved a motion to implement a ban.

“It’s not only Canada, but it’s other countries including the U.S., Australia, India, that’s done this already,” said Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach.

“This is a pretty serious issue just because it is a government device. Our emails are on there, private, confidential … correspondence. We don’t really want … a foreign government to have access to this kind of stuff.”

While many people may believe there’s no risk, Kinach said private information that appears innocuous could be fed into a larger pool of information that does lead to a security issue.

“I know we’re only a municipality and people don’t think we have anything important, but it’s data mining,” he said.

“Who knows what you can pull off one of our phones and put with somebody else’s phones and put the pieces together that makes the puzzle.”

He also said his motion only covers municipal devices, not personal phones.

But Ward 3 Coun. Angela Caputo said she wanted to ensure the city isn’t put at a disadvantage, particularly in tourism.

“There may be social media managers who are needing to use this app,” Caputo said.

Other communities are making use of the app “to attract a lot of tourism.”

“I know that TikTok comes across as a young kid app,” she said.

“But … for the purpose of tourism and the growth of our city, just striking things completely can also be damaging … I would love us to use every avenue we can to attract tourism.”

CAO Malcolm White said while that may be true right now, the global attitude toward the app is increasingly hostile and suspicious.

“I think the landscape with TikTok is going to change with all the actions that are being taken,” White said.

“I’m not sure in the end it will be a channel that is suitable for us.”

Elsewhere in northern Ontario, a spokesperson for the City of North Bay said the municipality does not operate a TikTok account.

“That said, our information systems department has used our device management software to prohibit TikTok from being installed on corporate devices in light of the privacy and cybersecurity concerns associated with the platform,” Gord Young said in an email.

In Sudbury, Kevin Fowke, the GM of corporate services, said a ban on TikTok was implemented March 16 as the city’s IT department identified the app as a potential risk.

“By the end of this week, it will be removed from (city) devices,” Fowke told CTV News.

PROACTIVE APPROACH

He said they are following the lead of other governments who have identified TikTok as a security risk. While the Sault had a motion to ban the app, Fowke said staff took a proactive approach and banned it on city devices when the security risks emerged.

In Timmins, spokesperson Amanda Dyer said in an email that no TikTok ban is in place.

“We do manage the applications on our corporate technology devices and we continually evaluate deployed applications on a case-by-case basis on a number of aspects – effectiveness to mission, security and information privacy,” Dyer said.

The federal government banned the app on government devices in February, citing concerns about the use of private information collected by TikTok.

The provincial government followed suit earlier this month, citing the safety of private data as the primary reason.

“While no data breaches have occurred, our government takes all allegations and concerns about data integrity incredibly seriously," said a statement from Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, President of Ontario's Treasury Board.