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(HONG KONG) — TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned Thursday amid U.S. strain for its Chinese language owner to promote the widespread video app, which the White Home says is a security threat.
In a letter to workers, Mayer stated that his decision to leave comes after the “political atmosphere has sharply changed.”
His resignation follows President Donald Trump’s speak to ban TikTok unless its guardian firm, ByteDance, sells its U.S. operations to an American firm inner 90 days.
“I if truth be told have done indispensable reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it approach for the realm characteristic I signed up for,” he stated in the letter. “In opposition to this backdrop, and as we put an declare to to attain a name very almost in the present day, it is miles with a heavy coronary heart that I desired to will enable you to all know that I if truth be told have made up our minds to leave the firm.”
Bytedance is in the intervening time in talks with Microsoft for the U.S. agency to purchase TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Mayer, a inclined Disney executive, joined TikTok as CEO in Also can objective.
TikTok thanked Mayer.
“We treasure that the political dynamics of the final few months have an awfully good deal changed what the scope of Kevin’s characteristic would be going forward, and fully respect his decision,” the firm stated in a commentary.
ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017, then supplied Musical.ly, a video service widespread with youngsters in the U.S. and Europe, and mixed the two. A twin service, Douyin, is on hand for Chinese language users.
TikTok received broad recognition by process of its relaxing, goofy videos and ease of use, and has hundreds of hundreds of thousands of users globally.
However its Chinese language ownership has raised concerns about capability censorship of videos, including those well-known of the Chinese language government, and the threat Beijing may perhaps well also objective entry user details.
Earlier this month, Trump ordered a sweeping nevertheless unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese language house owners of client apps TikTok and WeChat as the U.S. heightens scrutiny of Chinese language expertise companies, citing concerns that they would also objective pose a threat to nationwide security.
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