Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over Tiktok

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.

Author: Emily Baker-White
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 09/30/2025
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9781324086666


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2025

About the Author
Baker-White, Emily: - Emily Baker-White is a technology reporter at Forbes, where her TikTok coverage has won awards. A Harvard Law School graduate and former criminal defender, she previously led the Plain View Project, an investigation into police misconduct on Facebook, and covered TikTok for BuzzFeed News. She lives in Philadelphia.