Abstract
In the international digital platform market, a handful of US companies enjoy immense cultural, economic and political power. The short form video platform TikTok provides significant competition to these US incumbents but so far policymakers have focused on the geopolitical implications of TikTok. This paper provides a content analysis of government and company sources, issued between April and August 2020, to systematically establish the geopolitics of the TikTok controversy. It is important to identify geopolitical motivations because they can obscure other factors relevant to platform politics, such as the value of competition in a highly concentrated international platform market. The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda for enhancing competition and avoiding the solidification of conventional geopolitical power dynamics in the international digital platform market.
Highlights
The short form video app TikTok is the first social media ‘platform’ born outside the US to significantly rival the Silicon Valley incumbents
This paper provides a content analysis of government and company sources, issued between April and August 2020, to systematically establish the geopolitics of the TikTok controversy
The paper concludes by outlining a research agenda for enhancing competition and avoiding the solidification of conventional geopolitical power dynamics in the international digital platform market
Summary
The short form video app TikTok is the first social media ‘platform’ born outside the US to significantly rival the Silicon Valley incumbents. This article provides a geopolitical analysis of the political and economic contestations over TikTok that played out at the national level between the US and China from April to August 2020. For at least two decades the US has dominated in the international digital platform market This dominance falls within a broader geopolitical system of US hegemony that has defined the liberal world order since the end of the Cold War. Through strategic partnerships and alliances with nations around the world the US has enjoyed great economic and political power. In the international platform market, a handful of US companies enjoy immense cultural, economic and political power derived from their ownership and control over platform infrastructure and data. This requires overcoming conventional geopolitical agendas and eschewing both US and Chinese hegemony
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
