Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over Tiktok

By:

Sign Up Now! Already a Member? Log In
You must be logged into Bookshare to access this title. Learn about membership options, or view our freely available titles.

Synopsis
The story of the most effective attention algorithm ever invented, and the superpower struggle to control it. 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-White’s engrossing narrative charts TikTok’s rise from obscurity into the world’s most valuable startup, led by its ambitious founder, Zhang Yiming—arguably the father of the modern recommendation algorithm. Zhang’s 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 TikTok’s users—their interests, locations, and even their unspoken desires—was 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 government’s fight against Chinese tech. TikTok was the first Chinese app to become a US juggernaut, and lawmakers soon recognized its potential for surveillance and propaganda—and 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: China’s Xi Jinping and Trump himself.
Copyright:
2025

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
368 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781324086673
Related ISBNs:
9781324086666
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Emily Baker-White
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Computers and Internet, Business and Finance, Communication, Politics and Government
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

Reviews

No Rating Yet