TikTok has been granted a temporary reprieve in Canada after a Federal Court judge set aside a federal order that would have forced the company to wind down its Canadian operations.
The ruling pauses a 2024 decision by the Liberal government that directed TikTok to close its offices following a national security review. While the order stopped short of banning the popular video-sharing app for Canadian users, it threatened the company’s corporate presence in the country.
On Wednesday, the court effectively froze the shutdown and instructed Industry Minister Mélanie Joly to re-examine the case, giving the government another opportunity to reassess its approach.
TikTok Canada welcomed the development, saying it opens the door for renewed engagement with federal officials. The company warned that closing its offices would have led to significant job losses and reduced support for Canadian creators and cultural initiatives.
“Maintaining our Canadian team allows us to continue investing in local talent, businesses and communities,” said TikTok Canada spokesperson Danielle Morgan in an emailed statement, noting that hundreds of jobs were at stake.
Joly’s office did not immediately comment on the court’s decision.
Legal observers stressed that the ruling does not amount to a judgment on whether TikTok poses a national security risk. Instead, it reflects a procedural reset. University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist described the outcome as the government voluntarily stepping back from its earlier stance.
“This wasn’t a court ruling on the substance of the case,” Geist said. “It was a consent order. The government agreed, along with TikTok, to start over.”
Geist added that the original decision raised more questions than it answered, particularly because it targeted TikTok’s Canadian corporate entity while allowing the app itself to remain widely available.
“If the concern was privacy or security, banning the company but not the app didn’t really address those issues,” he said. “At the same time, it cut off support for Canadian cultural programs, making it unclear what the policy goal really was.”
Concerns about TikTok have circulated in Ottawa for years. In 2023, a parliamentary committee heard warnings about potential “cyber-enabled espionage and foreign interference” linked to the platform, which is owned by China-based ByteDance.
Privacy regulators have also scrutinized the company. The federal privacy commissioner previously cautioned that shutting down TikTok’s Canadian offices could hinder investigations by limiting regulators’ ability to obtain documents and testimony. Last year, federal and provincial privacy watchdogs jointly found that TikTok failed to adequately prevent children under 14 from accessing the platform and being exposed to targeted advertising. The company later agreed to strengthen its age-verification measures.
After the shutdown order was announced, TikTok Canada pulled its sponsorship from several high-profile cultural events, including the Juno Awards and the Toronto International Film Festival.
TikTok says it has invested millions of dollars in Canada since opening offices in Toronto and Vancouver and estimates that more than 14 million Canadians use the app.
Geist suggested Ottawa may have initially tried to align its policy with the United States, which had been weighing a TikTok ban. That strategy shifted late last year when TikTok reached a deal to sell its U.S. operations to American investors, allowing the platform to continue operating there.
“With the U.S. changing course, Canada was left defending a policy that no longer fit,” Geist said. “This reset gives the government a way to rethink its position.”
For now, TikTok’s Canadian offices will remain open as the federal government revisits the file and decides its next steps.
