These Ontario TikTokers are worried about losing the platform — not their data

Days after the Canadian government issued a ban of TikTok on employee devices, some TikTokers in Ontario say they are worried — not about their data being misused, they say, but of a possible loss of the app itself.

Several influencers — people with a large amount of followers on their TikTok accounts — say they're already very visible publicly and that they're more worried about the Canadian government banning the app for the public entirely. 

"I don't know what information people would want that I'm not already providing," said Hamilton children's book author Chris Paul Farias, who goes by chrispaulrainbows on TikTok.

"I wouldn't want the government to necessarily ban a platform, but it's their responsibility to educate the public what the privacy concerns might be so [people] can make an educated decision in using the app."

Earlier this week, the federal government said it was joining the U.S. and the European Union in removing and blocking the video-sharing platform from all government-issued devices, citing security reasons.

This came after Canada's federal privacy regulator, along with three provincial counterparts, last week launched a joint probe of the platform's collection, use and disclosure of users' personal information. The concerns are related to TikTok's Chinese parent company, Bytedance, and whether it could be compelled to share information with China's government.

According to a census-balanced survey taken last spring, about 26 adults per cent of adults in Canada are on TikTok. Seventy-six per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 had TikTok accounts, according to that same 2022 survey.

While the United States Congress is debating a bill which would ban TikTok across the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not say whether his government is considering a similar ban, when asked by CBC News Monday. 

TikTok key promotional tool, creator says

Hamilton-based Farias has a TikTok following of over 287,900 people. They say they use the app as a platform as an educational tool on diversity and belonging and as a method promote their Unicorn Rebellion branding agency. There is no compensation from TikTok itself, they said, so using it as a promotional tool is key. 

"In Canada there is no creator fund, it's very hard to make money off of TikTok," they said. 

TikTok has a creator fund which is designed to financially compensate content creators for high engagement and views on their videos. But that is only limited to residents of the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy, France or Spain and not for Canadian citizens. 

"I make money from being on TikTok — I've gotten speaking gigs and connections for work," said Farias.

Farias said they understand the need for government employees to remove the app from work devices, but worries if the app ban extends to the public, it could destroy the community they built up and damage their career.

One creator to others: diversify your income sources

Taylor Lindsay-Noel is the owner and CEO of Cup of Té in Toronto. She uses the TikTok handle AccessByTay, with a following of over 46,500 people, where she posts about disability, business, healthcare and her own personal journey from a former gymnast to a disabled business owner. 

She told CBC Hamilton that she's not worried about any misuse of her personal data. She said she was fully aware of the dangers of becoming a public figure on social media when she started her business.

"On a personal level I don't necessarily feel too worried about my data being misused because what are they truly going to get from people?" asked Lindsay-Noel. 

She said she understood the need for government workers to stay off the app but thinks a country-wide ban would be devastating for content creators.

"A lot of creators rely on TikTok as their only source of income, or people who are full-time content creators are fully reliant on the app," she said. 

Lindsay-Noel advises other content creators to diversify their sources of income and spread their content out to other media platforms in case TikTok does get banned in the future. 

"Because in a second this app could be deleted away from you and there's nothing you can do about it."

Summer Badawi, a Hamilton entrepreneur who runs an account to promote her small batch gourmet chocolate business, said she's not too worried "at first glance," because the removal is currently limited in scope. 

"If the app is banned on a larger scale I would definitely worry as that is the platform where I have the largest audience and not being able to interact with Canadians would make growing the business in Canada a bit trickier," she said. 

Badawi's account, under The DSRT Co., has more than 329,000 followers. 

"With respect to misuse of data, I think that's a risk for online activity in general. I don't know that I am worried about TikTok misusing my data specifically," she added.