The Scottish parliament has become the latest to advise against the use of Chinese social media app TikTok.

Employees and members of parliament working at Holyrood were “strongly advised” to take down the app from devices used to access its IT systems, according to an internal email seen by Sky News last week.

Earlier this month the UK government banned TikTok on work devices citing the need to keep sensitive information secure.

Alan Balharrie, CIO and group head of digital services, wrote: "After discussions with the National Cyber Security Centre, we are strongly advising that all members, members' staff, parliament staff and contractors' staff remove the TikTok app from any device currently used to access the Scottish Parliament's IT systems.”

He added: “We are giving this advice based on a precautionary approach and the best information available to us at this moment given the concerns around the information the TikTok application can collect from devices.”

The Scottish parliament joins a number of other governments and organisations banning TikTok from devices or discouraging its use in a work setting.

In New Zealand MPs were informed via email that the app would be blocked from all parliamentary devices by the end of the month while the Danish public-service broadcaster DR advised employees not to use TikTok on their devices after a security review and warnings from Denmark’s Centre for Cyber Security.

The Canadian Government has also banned TikTok on government devices, while the EU Commission has similarly banned TikTok from both corporate and personal devices over cybersecurity concerns.

The ByteDance-owned company recently announced new security measures due to fears over how user data is shared with China. These include storing data locally and using an external security firm to monitor data flows.

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