National security weaponized by Ottawa in app ban

This is an editorial from China Daily.

Despite admitting itself that there is no evidence that the app compromises users' information, the Canadian government has banned the use of social media apps WeChat and Kaspersky Lab on official government devices, claiming that the Chinese and Russian apps pose "an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security".

By banning TikTok in February and WeChat and Kaspersky now, Canada has made its definition of "security risk" clear: anything produced by China or a country Canada doesn't have friendly relations with poses a security risk. That neither WeChat nor TikTok nor Kaspersky has been found guilty of snooping or "stealing" personal information or intruding on the privacy of users, which apps made by Western companies are often found doing, is of least concern to Canada.

For Canada, in particular, the fact that both China and Russia are defined as "adversaries" by Canada's southern neighbor is reason enough to ban the Chinese and Russian apps.

In December last year, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning the use of TikTok on the federal government's devices. Two months later, Canada followed suit. Canada has outdone the US this time by banning WeChat first, although the US had tried to do so earlier.

Former US president Donald Trump issued an executive order on Aug 6, 2020, banning the use of WeChat. But on Sept 20, 2020, the day the ban was scheduled to take effect, a court in California blocked the order after a group called US WeChat Users Alliance filed a petition against it. The case is still pending, and the number of WeChat users in the US has increased to 19 million since then.

Reporting on the Canadian ban, CNN said that WeChat is "sometimes described as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and PayPal all rolled into one". This means WeChat is one of the most advanced and convenience-providing apps.

If the Canadian government is really concerned about the "risk to privacy and security", it should look at North America, not across the Pacific. Way back in 2013, when former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on Washington's PRISM project, the Canadian Department of National Defence was reportedly running a similar project within the country. Then Canadian defense minister Peter MacKay was flooded with questions such as whether he knew that PRISM collected Canadian people's information and whether the Canadian government participated in the PRISM project to which he had no clear answers.

Now, as a member of the US-led Five Eyes intelligence alliance, one part of Canada is still collecting information from across the world while another part claims a Chinese-made popular app poses a "risk to privacy and security". Perhaps ideological and geopolitical bias explains its stance.