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.
《Every Screen on the Planet: The War Over TikTok》由福布斯调查记者Emily Baker-White撰写，这本书深入剖析了TikTok作为当今最具影响力的社交媒体应用背后的复杂故事，从其起源到全球地缘政治冲突的全貌。作者追溯了TikTok的诞生，它源于中国科技巨头字节跳动公司创始人张一鸣的创新野心，张一鸣被视为推荐算法的奠基人之一，他开发出的算法彻底改变了互联网景观，从用户主动搜索信息转向算法主动推送内容，这种近乎诡异的精准预测让用户沉迷其中，仿佛应用能洞察人心，引发无限惊喜和喜悦，正如公司新员工培训视频所宣称的野心——将TikTok置于“地球上每一个屏幕”。
书中详细描绘了TikTok的爆炸式崛起，特别是COVID-19疫情期间，它成为首个在中国本土诞生却在美国大获成功的社交应用，通过收购美国短视频平台Musical.ly进一步扩展影响力，迅速征服全球年轻用户群。然而，这种成功也点燃了中美两国间的科技冷战火药桶，TikTok被视为潜在的监视和宣传工具，北京当局对字节跳动的法律控制让美国政界警铃大作，担心用户数据——包括兴趣、位置甚至隐秘欲望——随时可被中国员工访问。Baker-White凭借内部文件、泄露录音和公司内部举报人的独家爆料，揭示了自己作为调查记者亲身经历的惊人事件：她在曝光字节跳动员工可访问美国用户私人数据后，竟被公司团队利用应用追踪位置，这不仅引发刑事调查，还加剧了华盛顿对华科技对抗的紧迫感。
全书层层展开国会鹰派推动禁令的激烈辩论，一方强调国家安全隐患，另一方担忧言论自由受损，同时白宫秘密谈判寻求对TikTok信息流的空前掌控，涉及微软、沃尔玛等潜在买家以及拜登政府的干预策略。到2025年，当特朗普总统拒绝执行所谓禁令时，TikTok似乎上演了一场企业奇迹逃生，却仍悬于习近平和特朗普两位强人之间，苟延残喘。Baker-White通过政治、金融、数据和技术多维视角，探讨这场斗争如何重塑全球信息生态，TikTok不仅仅是娱乐工具，更是中美超级大国博弈的战场，揭示了算法权力如何悄然操控亿万注意力，预示着未来科技主权的深刻变革。
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