Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over Tiktok

DESCRIPTION :

Every Screen on the Planet is the first major book on one of the most dramatic business stories of our time. Touching on politics, finance, data, and technology, the struggle over TikTok has enormous implications for our information landscape and the technological cold war between the United States and China.

Emily Baker-Whites engrossing narrative charts TikToks rise from obscurity into the worlds most valuable startup, led by its ambitious founder, Zhang Yimingarguably the father of the modern recommendation algorithm. Zhangs products reshaped the global internet from a place where you searched for information to one where information came to you. TikTok seemed to know its users in an almost spooky way, provoking wonder and delight. People were hooked. We intend to become ubiquitous, a new-hire training video said, to put TikTok on every screen on the planet.”

But virtually everything about TikToks userstheir interests, locations, and even their unspoken desireswas accessible to staff in Beijing. After Baker-White, a Harvard-trained lawyer and investigative reporter, revealed that Chinese engineers could access Americans private information, a team of employees used the app to track her location and attempt to expose whistleblowers. This incident triggered an ongoing criminal investigation and escalated the US governments fight against Chinese tech.

TikTok was the first Chinese app to become a US juggernaut, and lawmakers soon recognized its potential for surveillance and propagandaand the threat it might pose in the hands of their rivals. Yet even as hawks in Congress gained support to ban the app, the White House was secretly negotiating for unprecedented control over its information stream. In 2025, when President Donald Trump declined to enforce the so-called ban law, TikTok seemed to complete a miraculous corporate escape. It retained its influence, profits, and power, but now operated at the pleasure of two strongmen: Chinas Xi Jinping and Trump himself.

PRODUCT DETAILS :

DIMENSION : 229 mm x 152 mm

PRODUCT CATEGORY :
Computing & Information Technology
Economics, Finance, Business & Management
Society & Social Sciences