Is TikTok Gathering Data for Beijing?

On August 3, the UK Parliament shut down its six-day-old TikTok account, because of warnings that the video-sharing app posed an unacceptable security threat. But US Democratic law makers are taking the opposite view: they are focused on leveraging TikTok to rally the Generation Z voters they need to stop the Republicans from taking control of Congress in November.

In this op-ed cross-posted in the Toronto Star, Stephen Maher writes that TikTok remains a problem America’s leaders seem reluctant to tackle.

Mardi Witzel says that the twin objectives of Canada’s proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), regulating commerce and preventing harm, echo those of other global initiatives.

However, the AIDA remains high-level, with critical elements undefined in the legislation. And, as Witzel describes, the most curious aspect of the proposed law is also the most foundational thing about it: the overarching governance arrangement.

Join Witzel and CIGI Managing Editor Michael Den Tandt on Wednesday, August 17, at 3:00 PM EDT (UTC–04:00), for a Twitter Spaces chat about this new piece.

Canadian news has recently featured many horror stories about ArriveCAN, the Government of Canada’s glitchy COVID-19 border app, which has incorrectly instructed travellers entering Canada to quarantine and affected thousands, if not tens of thousands, of travellers.

Matt Malone details how these incidents highlight several shortcomings of Canadian privacy and data protection law when it comes to mandatory data collection by the government, and updates that might help the government to rebuild lost trust.

Aug. 18 and Aug. 19 – 9:00 a.m. EDT (UTC–04:00) – Ottawa, Canada: On Thursday and Friday later this week, the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project, in partnership with CIGI, hosts its Summer Conference 2022, “Digital Communications and Media Markets: Power, Policy and Global Perspectives.”

Over two full days of programming, the conference will be delivering a blend of free in-person (onsite in Ottawa), hybrid and online sessions to assess developments across digital communications and media markets in Canada and internationally, and to discuss their impacts on policy agendas.

View the program and register here.