Additional reporting by Olivia Kelleher. Updated: 3.11pm
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the Government had to follow the advice of the National Cyber Security Centre to restrict the use of TikTok on official devices arising out of "some concerns" about how data gathered is used.
Ireland is now following in the footsteps of the UK and US governments as well as institutions in the EU in banning the Chinese owned social media platform from official public sector devices.
Speaking during a visit to Cork, Mr Varadkar described the National Cyber Security Centre as "the experts" to whom they had asked to consider this matter.
"Based on evidence they have now recommended that TikTok should not be used on public sector devices unless there is a particular business case for doing so," he said. "That is the advice that we are issuing today to the wider public sector.
"It is based on expert advice from our cybersecurity team of experts - there are some concerns about the data and how it is used and transmitted."
Mr Varadkar said the Government was open to reviewing this decision subject to the obtaining of further information and assurances.
"It is something that can be reversed. TikTok is a big investor in Ireland - it employs a lot of people and I think it is important to recognise that.
"But we have to take the advice of the cybersecurity experts on this."
"This is the advice - they are saying that it should not be used as an app on public sector devices unless there is a particular business case for doing so."
Meanwhile, TikTok has expressed its disappointment at the decision. In a statement they said they were not consulted prior to the announcement being made.
Misconceptions
"Similar decisions in other countries have been based on fundamental misconceptions, and we are always happy to engage with governments and institutions to explain how we protect our TikTok community and their data."
The news comes as Ireland's state body responsible for advising the Government on cybersecurity have recommended staff at government departments and state agencies should not use Chinese-owned video app TikTok on official devices.
A number of other countries including the UK, the U.S. and other European Union member states have barred TikTok over security concerns. The EU's two biggest policymaking institutions also banned the app last month.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, is under scrutiny from governments and regulators because of concerns that China's government could use its app to harvest users' data or advance its interests.
The head of the National Cyber Security Centre, Richard Brown said TikTok is on the "very high end, if not the highest end in terms of the amount of user data it collects" and that this created a risk, given the nature of Chinese intelligence-gathering law.
"The issue here is not what we know to be happening. The issue here rather is what we can’t rule out is happening," he told RTÉ's News at One.
"Once the risk exists in this kind of context, then it puts us in a situation where the logical argument is that we take a sensible risk-based approach and ensure that government data can't be compromised in this way."
Private devices
The NCSC said there was no reason why politicians could not use the app on their private devices and that it could be used on official devices in exceptional cases where there is a business need, such as by a press office.
Mr Brown said their analysis forms part of a larger international process of trying to understand the risks associated with this particular application. He stated that TikTok does not differ hugely from other social media applications.
"In many ways it is a typical social media application.
Mr Brown described the ownership structure of TikTok as being "relatively unusual."
"Given that it is a Chinese headquarters and given that Chinese Intelligence gathering laws it means that TikTok and its employees are subject to Chinese law and the application of a number of different measures to the company.
"There are circumstances where user data from the European Union has been made available to engineers in China which of course creates a whole series of other potential risks for government users. "
TikTok runs a number of its European operations from Dublin, including data privacy and protection. It announced last month that it would open a second data centre in Ireland and reduce the transfer of data outside the EU.
