TikTok‘s sponsorship of the Toronto Movie Competition, the Junos and different marquee Canadian cultural occasions has been suspended as TikTok’s Canadian operations face a pending shut down by the federal authorities over nationwide safety considerations.
“The termination of TikTok Canada’s funding for cultural organizations just like the Junos, TIFF and Adsiq is solely as a result of federal authorities’s order to shutdown TikTok Canada’s native operations. This dangerous and misguided order not solely eliminates funding for investments in Canadian tradition and content material creators — together with packages just like the TikTok Accelerator for Indigenous Creators — it additionally requires us to terminate lots of of native jobs,” Steve de Eyre, director of public coverage and authorities affairs, TikTok Canada, mentioned in a press release obtained by The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.
Canadians will nonetheless be capable to entry the social media big by way of the TikTok app. The federal authorities is as an alternative concentrating on the native operations of TikTok’s Chinese language guardian, ByteDance, over nationwide safety considerations.
It’s understood TikTok Canada, confronted with a shutdown of its native workplaces and workforce, has begun notifying Canadian cultural occasions it has sponsored that that assist is being withdrawn.
Representatives on the federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Trade in Ottawa, which ordered the TikTok Canada operations shutdown, weren’t accessible for direct remark.
In 2022, TikTok Canada started sponsoring TIFF’s Brief Cuts Program to showcase brief movies, and two years later upgraded its assist to turning into the official platform accomplice and presenting accomplice for the pageant’s Particular Displays sidebar.
And for 5 years operating, TikTok Canada served because the lead sponsor of the Juno Awards, Canada’s Grammys, and the title sponsor of its Juno Fan Selection Award, the place atypical Canadian music followers vote on a winner.
“TikTok has develop into an indispensable platform for each the Juno Awards and MusiCounts (nationwide music schooling charity). It has performed an important position in spotlighting rising Canadian expertise, usually serving as a launchpad for artists earlier than they’re nominated for or win a Juno Award,” The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, organizers of the Juno Awards and MusiCounts, mentioned in a press release about its formal ties to TikTok Canada ending.
“This alteration will likely be particularly difficult for impartial Canadian artists—who make up the overwhelming majority of Juno nominees yearly — as platforms like TikTok are important for constructing fan communities and gaining publicity,” CARAS added.
In November 2024, the federal authorities in Ottawa first ordered TikTok Canada to wind up its Canadian operations following a safety evaluate. Canada’s intelligence providers had investigated TikTok Know-how Canada, the native working arm of ByteDance, with workplaces in Vancouver and Toronto.
The federal authorities has not revealed the safety grounds on which it has ordered the shutdown of TikTok Canada’s native operations, citing confidentiality. TikTok additionally faces an unsure future within the U.S. market, once more over nationwide safety considerations.
With U.S. President Donald Trump eyeing a attainable sale of the video sharing platform to a U.S. consortium, media stories level to TikTok seeking to construct a brand new model of its platform solely for American customers.