The National Security Council warned that Philippines should "seriously consider" banning Chinese social media app TikTok for security sector officials, an executive from the National Security Council said on Saturday.

Jonathan Malaya, assistant director general of the NSC, raised the suggestion in a news forum in Quezon City noting that the council is yet to conduct a full study on whether or not the TikTok application in the Philippines is being used for Chinese propaganda.

"We should seriously consider for the security sector alone, not for the civilian agencies of government," Malaya said.

"Siguro (Maybe) if there is a need for banning, it will not be for public school teachers, it will not be for the civilians, but it will be for the armed personnel," he added.

Malaya noted there's a thorough discussion with National Security Adviser Eduardo Año in regards to the matter.

"We will need to study this very carefully, based on national security considerations. We will discuss this with the National Security Adviser if it will be proper for the Philippines to take this step," he said.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines assured that measures are in place in lieu of protecting the national security from internal and external threats.

"The AFP initiated professional measures so that we can be insulated from the spyware in these kinds of applications," AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar said in the same news forum.

According to Aguilar, there are certain instances in military camps where officials and visitors are required to surrender their mobile devices. Also, video recording when inside the camps' critical areas is prohibited.

"There is a policy already on the use of social media platforms to make sure the security of the organization is not exposed or compromised and the credibility of the Armed Forces is not also compromised," Aguilar said.

Tiktok became the third most used social media platform in the Philippines in January 2023 as mentioned in a study by Meltwater.

Countries, including the United States and New Zealand, earlier banned the TikTok app on government-issued devices due to concerns it could be circumvented for spying or propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party.

The European Commission and Canada also banned the use of TikTok in its devices.

The owner, Chinese tech giant ByteDance, repeatedly denied accusations that it shares data with the Chinese government.