Min Tang publishes about the TikTok controversy and information geopolitics

Dr. Min Tang publishes a new paper about the high-profile and still unfolding TikTok melodrama on Chinese Journal of Communication. The co-authored paper, Whose head servant? TikTok’s conundrum between digital capitalism and states, highlights the increasing entanglement between the state interest and technology industry in the United States. While the popular short-video app downplays its links with the Chinese state and tries hard to integrate into the U.S. political economic system, it fails to convincingly connect to the U.S. military-digital complex. The TikTok case vividly illustrates the resurgence of state influence in digital capitalism as the traditional Silicon Valley model’s reliance on venture capital and neoliberal operations is being tested against rising geopolitical rivalries.