Wednesday November 1, 2023 | 9:06 p.m. WIB
Herman / HE
WeChat app.
Jakarta, Beritasatu.com – Instant messaging app WeChat is under the spotlight in Canada, and its use has even been banned on government cellphones.
WeChat itself is a very popular instant messaging and social media app with over 1.3 billion active users worldwide. This app was developed by Tencent, a Chinese technology company.
Report of Gizmodo, Wednesday (01/11/2023), Canada’s chief information officer assessed WeChat as posing unacceptable privacy and security risks. The decision to ban the use of WeChat came about two years after a similar ban in the United States was lifted by the Biden administration on all apps from China.
The Treasury Board of Canada has noted that WeChat’s data collection methods provide significant access to device content. Although there is no evidence of a security breach of government information, this action was taken as a precautionary measure.
The President of the Treasury Board of Canada, Anita Anand, explained that the Canadian government is taking a risk-based approach by removing access to these applications on government mobile devices, in an effort to maintain the security of systems and information networks and protect privacy and government information.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry responded to the ban by stating that Canada had no concrete evidence to support the ban. They hope that Canada will not act on the basis of ideological prejudices.
In February 2023, Canada also banned the use of TikTok due to concerns about China’s access to data on devices that have TikTok installed. Several states in the United States have also banned the use of TikTok and WeChat on government devices, such as North Carolina and Ohio.
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