- Mayer says his decision to leave comes after the “political environment has sharply changed”.
Benagluru: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned on Thursday as the Chinese-owned short video sharing app faces enormous backlash from the US President Donald Trump.
In a letter sent to employees, Mayer said that his decision to leave comes after the “political environment has sharply changed”.
Mayer, a former Disney executive, joined TikTok as CEO in May.
The Trump administration has ordered TikToK to be banned in the US unless its parent company, ByteDance, sells its US operations to an American company within 90 days.
TikToK ban in the US
“I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for,” he said in the letter.
“Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company,” Mayer said.
Bytedance is currently in talks with Microsoft for the US firm to buy TikTok’s US operations.
Market sources suggest that Oracle is also in the fray.
Walmart Inc said it was joining Microsoft in a bid for social media company TikTok’s US assets.
Walmart lauded TikTok’s integration of e-commerce and advertising capabilities in other markets and said that a three-way partnership could bring that integration to the US.
The deal would help Walmart reach customers across virtual and physical sales channels and grow its online marketplace and its advertising business.
“We are confident that a Walmart and Microsoft partnership would meet both the expectations of US TikTok users while satisfying the concerns of US government regulators,” Walmart said in a statement.
ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017, then bought Musical.ly, a video service popular with teens in the US and Europe, and combined the two. A twin service, Douyin, is available for Chinese users.
“We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin’s role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision,” the company said in a statement.
Trump has ordered a sweeping but unspecified ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of consumer apps TikTok and WeChat as the US heightens scrutiny of Chinese technology companies, citing concerns that they may pose a threat to national security.
The Government of India has banned 59 Chinese mobile applications, including top social media platforms such as TikTok, WeChat and Helo, to counter the threat posed by these applications to the country’s “sovereignty and security”.