The City of Ottawa is restricting access to TikTok on all city-issued devices, a move that would bring it in line with other municipalities and governments getting rid of the controversial app.

The city will also limit access on any personal devices that access city-managed applications, according to a memo sent to the mayor and council.

Thursday's memo cited cybersecurity concerns about the Beijing-owned app, which specializes in the sharing of short videos, as the reason.

"[Information technology services] will communicate these measures with detailed instructions to city employees via a corporate email, along with follow up communications in corporate newsletters," it stated.

The memo says that if TikTok is required for business purposes, it can still be accessed through an internet browser "as it does not present the same level of risk." Both Ottawa Public Health and the city's recreation, cultural and facility services use TikTok and were made aware of the decision.

Earlier in the day, the office of Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he was waiting for a report on the application, but that any ban would be an administrative decision.

On Thursday, the Treasury Board of Ontario announced the provincial government had started removing TikTok from its devices as well.

On Friday, the Ottawa Police Service announced the app had been removed from all of the force's devices.

Ontario PC party caucus members will also remove it from personal devices, with provincial government advertising campaigns also being taken off the application.

"The decision to block the TikTok application from government-issued and personal devices is a proactive and precautionary approach to ensuring the protection of government data and networks," an emailed statement reads, adding no data breaches had occurred.

Across the Ottawa River, the City of Gatineau has followed the lead of the Quebec government and sent a memo to staff, asking employees to uninstall the app.

China could access data 'at will': expert

When the federal government announced its own ban earlier this week, it cited security concerns and that a review found TikTok's data collection methods could lead to cyberattacks.

Beijing-based ByteDance owns the application, with that ownership raising concerns at a time of heightened tensions between China and the West.

Steve Waterhouse, a cybersecurity specialist, said that other applications also collect users' data, but when third-parties want to access it they need to jump through more judiciary hoops.

"By Chinese laws, the government can, at will, go and knock on ByteDance's door and request such information," Waterhouse said. "M\ybe not towards one person, as you have billions of users using TikTok potentially.

"Let's say [China] wants to influence the thinking or decisions about a sensitive topic — it can use the information from this social media platform and inject a powerful message."

Waterhouse said the sheer amount of information TikTok documents is also a problem, adding that he supported the decisions by municipalities to rid their devices of the app.

If an organization does determine its use is warranted  — especially if connecting to younger people is a priority — it should consider restricting its use, possibly to just one device.

Ottawa's role as the nation's capital could also make it a prime target, Waterhouse said, with staff having communication with embassies and federal and provincial officials.

That information could all be considered useful to the Chinese government, he said.

"If a city official has access to certain sensitive material ... then potentially it can be a backdoor to document this information, and use it to their advantage."