TikTok’s Canada unit seeks judicial evaluation of shutdown orders

(Reuters) – TikTok’s Canada unit filed an emergency movement with Canada’s Federal Courtroom in search of a judicial evaluation of an order that the corporate shut down its operations within the nation on nationwide safety issues, it mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday.

The Chinese language-owned social media app requested the court docket put aside a authorities order requiring TikTok to wind-up its enterprise in Canada, a submitting dated Dec. 5 confirmed.

Instead, the submitting mentioned the court docket might put aside the order and return it to the federal government for evaluation together with steering.

Ottawa final 12 months started investigating TikTok’s plan to speculate and develop its enterprise in Canada.

The evaluation led to a authorities order final month that required the agency to finish its Canadian operations due to nationwide safety issues.

Closing its Canadian enterprise would result in a whole bunch of job losses, TikTok argued in its assertion on the authorized problem.

“We imagine it is in the perfect curiosity of Canadians to discover a significant resolution and make sure that an area crew stays in place, alongside the TikTok platform,” it mentioned.

Beneath Canadian regulation, the federal government can assess potential dangers to nationwide safety from international investments, such because the TikTok proposal. The regulation prevents the federal government from revealing the small print of such investments.

Final month’s order stopped wanting blocking Canadians’ entry to the favored social media platform. TikTok has greater than 14 million month-to-month customers in Canada, in accordance with the corporate.

Canada’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Trade didn’t instantly reply to a Reuters request for remark exterior common enterprise hours.

The Canadian order adopted related motion within the U.S. the place President Joe Biden in April signed a regulation requiring Bytedance, which owns TikTok, to promote its U.S. belongings by Jan. 19, 2025 or face a nationwide ban.

On Monday, TikTok and Bytedance individually requested an appeals court docket to briefly block the regulation pending a Supreme Courtroom evaluation.