Notice filed in federal court to challenge Canadian government order to shutdown TikTok’s Canada’s operations
ByteDance’s has filed a legal challenge in Canada, amid ongoing pressure to maintain its presence in the North American market.
In a filing published on its website, the firm said it had “filed a notice of application in federal court to challenge the government’s order to shutdown TikTok Canada’s operations. This order would eliminate the jobs and livelihoods of our hundreds of dedicated local employees.”
TikTok said it believes it is the best interest of Canadians to find a meaningful solution and ensure that a local team remains in place, alongside the TikTok platform.
TikTok appeal
TikTok said it had filed an application for a judicial review with the Federal Court in Vancouver on 5 December, which seeks to set aside the order for TikTok to wind-up and cease its business in Canada.
TikTok argues in its court application that Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s decision was “unreasonable” and “driven by improper purposes.” It alleges the order is “grossly disproportionate” and the the national security review was “procedurally unfair.”
TikTok also alleged that Champagne had “failed to engage with TikTok Canada on the purported substance of the concerns” that led to the order.
It argued the Canadian government ordered “measures that bear no rational connection to the national security risks it identifies” and that the reasons for the order “are unintelligible, fail to reveal a rational chain of analysis and are rife with logical fallacies.”
The platform also stated there were “less onerous” options than shutting down its Canadian business, which it said would eliminate hundreds of jobs, threaten business contracts and “cause the destruction of significant economic opportunities.”
Canadian shutdown order
It was in early November 2024 when the Canadian government ordered the winding down of TikTok Technology Canada Inc. following a national security review under the Investment Canada Act.
The government did not block Canadian access to the TikTok application itself.
TikTok is said to have 14.9 million registered users in Canada, with 5.8 million active users (Canada has a total population of 40.1 million people).
It is understood that TikTok has two offices in Canada – one in Toronto and one in Vancouver.
TikTok is of course under Chinese ownership, and its parent ByteDance moved its headquarters from Beijing to Singapore in 2020 over fears that the app could be used by Chinese officials to collect data on Western users or push pro-China narratives and misinformation.
The Canadian government in February 2023 had banned TikTok from all government-issued devices.
Many other Western governments have also banned the app on government devices.
Divest or ban
Canada’s close down order came a day after the US election victory of Donald Trump.
In June, Trump had joined TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban during his first term of office. The app has about 170 million users in the United States.
It remains to be seen whether Trump will press ahead with the US order to divest or be banned.
President Biden had earlier in the year signed a law that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok to an approved US buyer before the end of his term on 19 January 2025, or face a nationwide ban.
The US government contends that TikTok is a national security threat, an allegation ByteDance strongly disputes.
ByteDance has previously reportedly stated it would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it, if all legal options are exhausted. ByteDance also denied it would sell TikTok without the powerful recommendation algorithm that has driven the platform’s success.
TikTok has fought the divest or close order in the US courts, and the firm asked an appeals court to throw out the law on the grounds that it impedes freedom of speech, but the case was rejected last Friday.
On Monday this week TikTok and parent company ByteDance asked for an emergency injunction to block the enforcement of a law that would effectively ban the app in the United States to give the Supreme Court more time to review the case.