Canada closes TikTok's offices but leaves using the app a matter of 'personal choice' Canada has ordered the dissolution of TikTok's Canadian business – without banning the app itself – citing national security risks associated with ByteDance's operations in the country. In a Wednesday statement, François-Philippe Champagne, minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, ordered the "wind up" of TikTok …
Tik Tok does have a very seriously negative side but Trump's idea seemed like quite a good compromise. Keep the directors local where things can be governed at a local level at at least some control can be retained.
I don't see what Trudeau expects to achieve by shutting down the local office. Or are we only being told half the story and his next stage is just to ban it outright after there are no longer any local figures.
If it threatens Canada's national security, doesn't it do so whether they have an office here or not?
Does it mean that there is some sort of perimeter defence in Canada; so forcing tiktok traffic to cross that perimeter gives some ability.
I remember that prior to Snowden, the US pretended that it only eavesdropped on international calls.
Because to do so domestically would be against the law.
ps: please restrain from ascribing US-style personality cults to Canadians.
We have a well ordered and effective governance model that avoids that, as well as our own Pee Wee Trump to make farcical accusations: https://www.thebeaverton.com/2024/11/i-cant-believe-anyone-would-vote-for-trump-says-smug-canadian-man-planning-to-vote-for-poilievre/
“ps: please restrain from ascribing US-style personality cults to Canadians.”
Counter-argument: Alberta Premiere Danielle Smith.
She’s about as pro-Trump, anti-vax wack-job as you can get!
Next Federal election who do we see, Poilievre (hate’im), Trudeau (despise’im), or Singh (don’t like’im).
Oh Rats another election where every single candidate is a terrible choice, why-oh-why can’t we allow voters to alternatively cast “negative votes” of opposition against their most despised candidate? It would have disqualified Trump AND Harris, but that’s ok, everybody hated both of em.
Yes I’m talking about r/PlebisciteBallot !!
Dangit!
Yes to negative votes!
"I do not approve of any of these candidates. Show me more options and keep rerunning the contest until you find someone I can in good faith endorse."
Problem is that politics attracts those who are otherwise useless to society. The ones with no actionable competencies. The ones with the mild to extreme personality disorders. Hence the ballot paper stuffed with utter morons. Same with C-level board members. Shit floats.
People with demonstrable skills tend to be happier exercising those skills and keep their heads down and get on with it.
So best solution I can think of is make appointing public sector leaders a random lottery. Bit like jury service. It honestly can't be any worse and it could potentially be a lot better.
And for a limited time, like two or three years. Short enough that they can't normally wreck too many things (though, Liz Truss...) and also short enough that they don't get to feather the nest.
I think a lot of the problem is that the longer one is a politician, the more corrupt they become when they understand exactly how public finances can be (ab)used. MPs "expenses" being a great example.
I was thinking more like 6 months. Something roughly in line with ma(pa)-ternity leave so that employers have to keep your position open for when you are done with your public service. Sure, you'll achieve absolutely nothing because by the time you learn everyone's name it'll all be over, but that's kind of the point and totally in line with the output of elected officials.
Trudeau likely had nothing to do with it, that's not how the government works. But they have said they aren't going to tell you any details, that's how national security works. Intelligence agencies don't share information with the public unless there is a real need to do so. Even then you won't get the full story
"Trudeau likely had nothing to do with it, that's not how the government works. "
Trudeau is the Prime Minister, who is the head of the Governmental Services, including the ISED. he is therefore ultimately responsable for all the decisions, especially when they affect the Canadian People, or does Canada have some alternative kind of Government structure ?
I very much doubt that Trudeau was not aware of the ISED decision.
Being aware of it is not the same as it being his doing. Most decisions are left up to the various departments, if everything had to go through the PM for approval then nothing would get done, and this is a pretty minor thing.
And this whole tyrant thing is utter nonsense, the closest we've come to that was harper, and even there it was limited because the PM doesn't have nearly as much power as the anti-trudeau types claim he does.
"Being aware of it is not the same as it being his doing. Most decisions are left up to the various departments, if everything had to go through the PM for approval then nothing would get done, and this is a pretty minor thing."
When Government offices make decision like this , they are never "minor" things. When a lot of powerful people are involved never take it at face value. There is obviously something more sinister going on that for some strange reason can't be made publicly. Simply saying that it is a "national security" issue is just a catch all phrase to avoid answering difficult questions.
"You mean something like (shudder...) the Deep State ?"
No, I don't mean that at all.
And let's not pretend that a deep state doesn't exist. We give it a name now but it has always existed. It is just the employees that have always been there, especially the C-Suite varieties, that will do anything they can to remain there and retain their positions/power. I dont blame them but they can cause a lot of things to happen that shouldn't and vice-verse. And according to their political bias, be it right or left, they can present a problem/barrage. Exactly the same as people that have been in any large company for many years. If you have ever worked for a very large company you know fine well what I mean.
Because the US owner of 15% of Byte Dance visited him in his swamp palace and later that day he announced his opposition to the Tik Tok ban.
Of course that means nothing now that's in office, he's used that guy for whatever campaign donations he got so unless he forks over some of his share of Byte Dance Trump might turn around and be ready to ban again next year.
This doesn't make sense to me. If they're allowing the app to run but shutting the office then it sort of implies that the people working for the office were the threat to national security. If they were then why not just let the office run, collect more evidence and then prosecute and jail them? If the people threatening national securty were Canadian then presumably they're still in country. Maybe they're only a threat when they're on a salary. Colour me confused.
The story is not going to make any sense to you if you don't live in Canada and been following the Canadian news. This story doesn't mention any of the background to this announcement but instead goes on about completely unrelated American issues, so there's no reason why you would understand it.
One of the top long running stories over the past couple of years has been about security problems originating in foreign countries. The Government of India have been running around assassinating Modi's political critics in Canada, Saudi Arabia and Iran have been doing their own dirty deeds, and Chinese people have been saying negative things about Canadian politicians on WeChat.
A long running revue committee is just wrapping up their report on all this, and so the government have to be seen to "do something" in order to cut off the press reaction.
Now they've "done something" and so the whole thing can be put behind us and we can get on to the next issue. India will still murder Modi's political critics in Canada, Saudi Arabian security agents will continue to show up at the airport in Toronto with bone saws in their luggage and evasive stories about the reasons for their visit to Canada, and Chinese people will still call Canadian politicians insulting names on WeChat, but we are now safe from, well, something or other.
It's like the Huawei / Meng story from a few years ago. If you didn't follow the Canadian reporting on what actually happened you ended up reading the wildly distorted and inaccurate version circulating in the international press and so would have no idea what was going on or how it all started or ended.
<quote>US lawmakers and government officials have long warned that Beijing is likely to abuse the app to swipe citizens' data – or overtly spy on them – while also spreading pro-China propaganda and misinformation</quote>
Cool, now do the same with all the other networks. Seems a bit off to single out tiktok, when Meta & Twitter are also pumping out propaganda.
Besides, it is well known the US agencies were listening on the German chancellor's and not the Chinese government. But we should better not be bothered with such minor details. Let's keep our eyes on China please. This will help making America great, with or without the newly elected PotUS.
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