The UK government has become the latest organisation to ban Chinese social media app TikTok over security concerns.

The ban comes after cabinet office ministers ordered a security review to look at the potential vulnerability of information stored on devices and how some social media apps and platforms could access it.

In a statement, the government said there is limited use of TikTok within its departments and there is limited need for staff to use the app on work devices.

The ban does not extend to personal devices and there are exemptions where required for work purposes which will be granted by security teams on a case-by-case basis. These include working in enforcement or working to minimise online harm.

Commenting on the news Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden said: “The security of sensitive government information must come first, so today we are banning this app on government devices. The use of other data-extracting apps will be kept under review.”

He added: “Restricting the use of TikTok on Government devices is a prudent and proportionate step following advice from our cyber security experts.”

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.

Several other organisations have recently banned the use of TikTok on work devices or warned of potential security problems in the app, including Denmark’s public-service broadcaster DR and the Czech cyber security watchdog NUKIB which said it had concerns over amount of data that is collected by the app.

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.

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