By Burak Bir
LONDON (AA) - The UK on Thursday banned the use of Chinese video-sharing application TikTok on government electronic devices.
Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden told MPs that TikTok would be banned on security grounds with immediate effect, and the ban applies to government corporate devices within all government departments.
"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 said in a statement.
The move follows similar rules by the US, Canada, Belgium, as well as EU institutions, where authorities have asked to uninstall the app amid security concerns that data may be accessed by China.
"Restricting the use of TikTok on Government devices is a prudent and proportionate step following advice from our cyber security experts," said Dowden.
While the ban does not extend to personal devices for government employees, ministers or the general public, the statement warned that individuals should be aware of each social media platform’s data policies.