TikTok files challenge against Canadian government order to dissolve its business in the country
Associated PressTikTok has challenged a Canadian government order to shut down the Chinese video-sharing app’s business operations in the country that was imposed over national security concerns. The Canadian federal government last month announced it was ordering the dissolution of TikTok Technology Canada Inc. after a national security review of its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. TikTok argues in its court application, which was posted online, that Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s decision was “unreasonable” and “driven by improper purposes.” It says the order is “grossly disproportionate” and the the national security review was “procedurally unfair.” The review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate foreign investment with potential to harm national security. His office said in response to the filling that the government’s decision was informed by a “thorough national security review and advice from Canada’s security and intelligence community.” TikTok said Champagne “failed to engage with TikTok Canada on the purported substance of the concerns” that led to the order. It 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, fail to reveal a rational chain of analysis and are rife with logical fallacies.” The platform says 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.”