The City of Belleville is banning TikTok from city phones.
In a press release, Belleville Chief Administrative Officer Rod Bovay said that the app was being banned for security concerns.
“These efforts are being made in a precautionary effort to limit any risks to privacy and security,” said Bovay. “We appreciate the cooperation of our staff as we work through this process.”
The decision comes alongside the federal and provincial governments also banning the app.
Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, the president of the Treasury Board, announced on Thursday afternoon that they are banning the social media app TikTok on government-owned devices and on the personal devices of Progressive Conservative Party caucus members.
Sarkaria also said that as part of the ban, government advertising campaigns will be removed from TikTok.
The Federal government banned the app last week after review, citing security and privacy concerns with the Chinese-owned app, and declaring that it posed an unacceptable risk.
All of the provinces have since followed suit, with Ontario the last to announce its decision.
The Chinese government has a stake in TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, and Chinese laws allow the country to demand access to user data.
The company that owns TikTok maintains that it does not share data with China’s government and its data is not held in that country.
