There have been media reports that outline what Douyin is used for in mainland China, and it's used as a propaganda tool of the Chinese Communist Party. They pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into their influencer network so that they can affect the propaganda that the Chinese Communist Party is looking to disseminate through the United Front Work Department.
The proximity between these sister companies is the type of thing that gives rise to great concern for us as legislators, for Canadians as users and for us as parents.
What assurances do we have that the techniques that have been documented as being carried out by the Chinese Communist Party and the United Front Work Department using Douyin, the sister app to TikTok, aren't being employed by the dictatorship in Beijing to interfere in our democratic institutions here in Canada or to affect other nefarious purposes that haven't been detected?