Whose head servant? TikTok’s conundrum between digital capitalism and states

Drawing on a case study of TikTok’s operations in the United States, this paper examines state-capital relations in an era of globalized digital platforms. Specifically, it analyzes how ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, grapples with being a global digital platform while navigating intensifying entanglements between state interests and capitalist expansion. This study reveals that despite ByteDance’s attempts to downplay Chinese state connections and align with U.S. market and political practices, TikTok’s identity remains contested due to its failure to integrate fully into the U.S. military-digital complex. It argues that the core of TikTok’s predicament lies in evolving state-capital dynamics, in which the traditional Silicon Valley model’s reliance on venture capital and neoliberal operations is being tested against rising geopolitical rivalries and the resurgence of state influence in digital capitalism.