OTTAWA — Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne on Wednesday ordered TikTok Technology Canada to shut down, using a legal authority allowing him to ban foreign-owned corporations from operating in Canada on national-security grounds.

The order is largely symbolic: it does not ban TikTok’s uber-popular video sharing app, which Canadians can continue using. But it is just the latest federal measure targeting Chinese-owned corporations for security reasons. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands but headquartered in Beijing.

“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” Champagne said in a written statement, without giving further details.

Champagne’s office did not answer questions about what specific risks it had identified with TikTok’s Canadian subsidiary, or why it was ordering the company wound up while allowing the app to remain available. The announcement does not give a deadline for TikTok to comply.

TikTok did not respond to questions.

The federal order targets TikTok Technology Canada, a company registered in British Columbia in August 2016. The company has lobbied federal officials on rules that could affect the digital creators who find fame and money on its service.

But the Canadian firm doesn’t distribute TikTok’s product here—it’s largely a sales and marketing entity. The TikTok apps for Apple and Android devices are published by firms based in the Cayman Islands and Singapore, respectively.

The Liberal government launched its review of TikTok’s Canadian subsidiary in September 2023 under the Investment Canada Act, which sets requirements for foreign firms buying or setting up businesses in the country. 

In May, David Vigneault, then the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, warned that the Chinese government had access to users’ TikTok data—China’s government insists otherwise—and warned people against having the app on their devices. The spy agency had previously warned the government that Beijing could use the service in operations to influence people abroad.

Ottawa blocked the app on government-issued devices in early 2023. Many other countries also have varying degrees of restrictions on TikTok.

U.S. policymakers have targeted TikTok, but unlike in Canada, their efforts could lead to an outright ban of the app. In April, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a law that would stop app stores from providing access to the service unless ByteDance sells it. TikTok is fighting that in court.

This is not the first time the Liberal government has ordered a Chinese firm out of the country on national security grounds. In November 2022, Ottawa used the investment act to order certain Chinese companies to divest from Canadian critical minerals producers.

The Liberals have also proposed legislation that would allow the government to ban Chinese technology companies like Huawei and ZTE from Canadian telecommunications networks. Nearly two and a half years later, though, that bill has not made it all the way through Parliament to become law.

Ottawa is also considering a ban on automotive software from China, following similar U.S. action.