NATO is the latest governmental body to ban the social media app over concerns that the Chinese government could have access to the data of TikTok users through its Chinese parent company Bytedance.

NATO on Friday officially banned staffers from downloading the short video-sharing social media app TikTok onto their NATO-provided devices, citing security concerns, two NATO officials familiar with the matter said.

According to the officials, NATO officials sent a note to employees on Friday morning announcing the ban. The note made the ban official, but TikTok was not really usable on NATO-issued devices before, the officials said, due to internal tech restrictions. 

"Cyber security is a top priority for NATO. NATO has robust requirements for determining applications for official business use. TikTok is not accessible on NATO devices," a senior NATO official told CNN.

NATO is the latest governmental body to ban the social media app over concerns that the Chinese government could have access to the data of TikTok users through its Chinese parent company Bytedance. 

The United States, United Kingdom, Norway, European Parliament, and other countries have already banned the app from government-issued devices. 

TikTok's CEO Shou Chew earlier this month stressed to US lawmakers that the company is completely independent from China. According to him, he has "seen no evidence that the Chinese government has access to that data; they have never asked us, we have not provided it." 

Chew added that TikTok is moving its data into the US, to be stored on US soil by the American company Oracle. 

"So the risk would be similar to any government going to an American company, asking for data," he said.

Still, Western governments remain skeptical. 

TikTok should be "ended one way or another," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress earlier this month in a separate hearing that took place on the same day Chew was testifying. 

"Clearly, we, the administration and others are seized with the challenge that it poses and are taking action to address it," Blinken said.