The Premier announced the ban on Wednesday morning, saying that he had already stopped using the social media app on his own phone “for security reasons”.

Malinauskas said that the ruling is being issued under the SA Cyber Security Framework.

“For government employees, this means we’ll be requiring them to delete the app from any official devices and preventing it from being downloaded in the future,” he said.

Concerns over the popular app relate to the potential for data to be harvested and then accessed by the Chinese government under national laws that can compel companies to hand over information.

Malinauskas said that limited exemptions could be sought for legitimate business reasons, but any move to install the application must be approved by security advisors and will require appropriate risk mitigation strategies be in place.

The ruling does not affect the use of TikTok on personal devices. However, it does require agencies which allow the use of personal devices to access official sensitive or security classified data to formally assess the risk of TikTok.

Malinauskas yesterday flagged he was seeking advice from the state’s chief information officer to quickly make a decision about protecting South Australians’ information.

It followed Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announcing a Federal Government ban this week after receiving advice from intelligence and security agencies over the platform, Dreyfus said the ban would be coming into effect soon.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who has more than 100,000 TikTok followers, also confirmed he would delete his account and follow the Federal Government lead in matters of national security.

The United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada already have implemented a ban on government devices.