Security experts and tech watchers have called the UK Government’s ban on using TikTok on official devices “irrational” and based on little more than geopolitics. Data experts have previously pointed out that were TikTok banned outright, the Chinese government, should it want to obtain information about Western social media users, could simply buy access to information collected through other US-based apps via data brokers. Professor Vaidhyanathan also pointed out that the number of government devices is vanishingly small compared to TikTok’s ballooning userbase, which would be the real security risk if China were to want to access users.