The U.K. government today banned TikTok on all government electronic devices, following in the footsteps of similar moves from the European Commission, Canada and the U.S. House of Representatives.

Not surprisingly, security was named as the reason behind the move. The U.K. Cabinet Office ordered a security review that considered the potential vulnerability of government data with social media apps and how some platforms could access and use sensitive information.

The review found that given the potentially sensitive nature of the information stored on government devices, government policy on the management of third-party applications should be strengthened. The initial outcome of the government strengthening its approach is a “precautionary ban” on TikTok on all government devices.

“The security of sensitive government information must come first, so today we are banning this app on government devices,” Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden said in a statement. “The use of other data-extracting apps will be kept under review.” The chancellor added that “restricting the use of TikTok on Government devices is a prudent and proportionate step following advice from our cybersecurity experts.”

The government added that its concerns include the TikTok app requiring users to permit it to access data stored on the device, which TikTok then collects and stores. It’s concerned about how that data may be used.

The ban does not extend to the personal devices of government employees, ministers or the general public, only to government devices. Specific exemptions for using TikTok on government devices are available when access to the application is required for work purposes but will only be granted by security teams on a case-by-case basis.

The U.K. may soon be joined in banning TikTok on government devices by its neighbor across the English Channel, France, which was reported today to be considering a similar ban. It was also reported yesterday that the Biden administration has ordered that TikTok’s owner ByteDance Ltd. sell its U.S. operations or face an outright ban in the country.

“We’ve already seen steps taken by the European Commission and U.S. government to ban TikTok from staff devices, so it’s no surprise to see the U.K. government follow suit,” Chris Vaughan, a vice president at endpoint management company Tanium Inc., told SiliconANGLE. “Institutions are realizing that use of the platform could open up staff and citizens to a number of problems, including campaigns designed to further the political objectives of adversaries and deepen divisions in western societies.”

However, other cybersecurity experts were more skeptical about the U.K. government ban in light of the U.K.’s proposed Online Safety Bill.

“The U.K. government banning officials having TikTok on their phones while pushing through legislation that will give the U.K. government access to all U.K. communications screams of double standards and hypocrisy,” said Matthew Hodgson, the co-founder of open-source project Matrix and chief executive of secure communications provider Element.

“Outwardly, it looks like they’re taking the security of data seriously by stopping China from having a backdoor into U.K. data — albeit only for government officials currently,” Hodgson explained. “However, the U.K. government is pushing through the Online Safety Bill, which creates a very similar backdoor into every communications platform used by U.K. citizens. So, it’s not OK for China to access government communications, but it is OK to provide a route for them to access citizen communications via Online Safety Bill weaknesses? We need to protect the privacy of U.K. citizens today from bad actors and nation-states of all shapes and sizes.”

Image: TikTok