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TikTok is challenging a Canadian government order to shut down the Chinese-owned app in the country as a ban in the U.S. looms large.
TikTok announced on Tuesday (December 10) that it filed an application for a judicial review with the federal court in Vancouver on December 5 to fight the order for the Chinese-based video app to end its business in Canada.
The Canadian federal government announced last month its ordering the dissolution of TikTok Technology Canada after a national security review of its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Notably, the government is not blocking access to TikTok. The company says it has 14 million users in Canada, equating about a third of the population, with offices in Toronto and Vancouver.
Owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2020, TikTok is under increasing pressure from Western countries. As it faces down a potential ban in the U.S. in January, TikTok is also seeing scrutiny in Europe over concerns like election interference campaigns allegedly coordinated by Moscow.
In its court application, TikTok argues that the Canadian government’s decision was “unreasonable” and “driven by improper purposes,” calling the order “grossly disproportionate” and the national security review “procedurally unfair.” The review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which enables the government to investigate foreign investment with the potential to harm national security.
TikTok argues the government ordered measures “that bear no rational connection to the national security risks it identifies,” and that the reasons for the order are “unintelligible” and “fail to reveal a rational chain of analysis.” The company says shutting down its Canadian business would eliminate hundreds of jobs and threaten business contracts.
The government’s review and decision were headed by Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, who said in a statement at the time that the government was taking action to address “specific national security risks.” In response to the recent filing, his office said the decision was informed by “a thorough national security review and advice from Canada’s security and intelligence community.”