Beyond the Ban: TikTok and the Politics of Digital Sovereignty in the EU and US

Abstract

This article explores the emergence of TikTok as a central issue in contemporary debates on foreign interference, platform regulation, and the governance of transnational data flows. Both the European Union and the United States have expressed concerns about TikTok’s potential risks and have implemented various regulations. Through a comparative analysis of EU and US regulatory discourses, this article examines how claims to digital sovereignty are mobilised in efforts to govern the Chinese‐based platform. In doing so, this study advances ongoing debates on the regulation of large‐scale digital platforms and data infrastructures. Our analysis reveals that whereas the EU emphasises regulatory autonomy, public health, and democratic integrity in governing cross‐border data flows, the US frames TikTok in a more overtly securitised approach rooted in techno‐nationalism and strategic infrastructural decoupling from China. More broadly, the article also argues that when framed as a countermeasure to foreign interference, digital sovereignty is increasingly rearticulated as a security‐centric concept that subsumes broader societal harms, and it risks assuming authoritarian connotations.