The Ontario government is cracking down on social media app Tik Tok and banning it from all government-issued devices, effective immediately. 

Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, president of the Treasury Board of Ontario, made the announcement on Thursday. 

"The decision to block the Tik Tok application from government-issued and personal devices is a proactive and precautionary approach to ensuring the protection of government data and networks," Sarkaria said in a statement. 

Our government takes the safety, privacy, and security of the people of Ontario extremely seriously.

That’s why, effective immediately, the TikTok app will no longer be permitted on Ontario government-issued devices.

Please see my statement below: pic.twitter.com/tYqcjIuAlA

— Prabmeet Sarkaria (@PrabSarkaria) March 9, 2023

"While no data breaches have occurred, our government takes all allegations and concerns about data integrity incredibly seriously." 

All Ontario Progressive Conservative party caucus members have been instructed to delete the video-sharing app from their personal devices.

Singh also announced that government advertising campaigns would be removed from the Chinese-owned app. 

Just last week, Ottawa banned the video-sharing app from federally-issued government devices following a review that found the social media platform presented an "unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security." 

TikTok banned in Canada for use by federal government due to security risk https://t.co/NFON2kWnOS #Canada #TikTok

— blogTO (@blogTO) February 28, 2023

"The government encourages Ontarians to review the terms and conditions of any application they use to ensure they are making an informed decision about how those tools use information," Singh said.

All the other provinces in Canada have also blocked the app from government-issued mobile devices, with Ontario being the last to announce its ban.