TikTok chief executive officer Kevin Mayer has quit, the company said in a statement. His resignation comes days after the popular short-form video-sharing app and one of its employees separately sued US President Donald Trump’s administration over his executive order banning transactions in the US, calling it a pretext to fuel anti-China rhetoric as he seeks re-election. In a letter to staff, the TikTok CEO said: “It is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company.”
TikTok General Manager Vanessa Pappas will replace Kevin Mayer on an interim basis.
California-based TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance have rejected what they call the White House’s position that it was a national security threat, saying they had taken “extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok’s US user data”.
They also described Mr Trump’s call in his August 6 executive order for a TikTok ban as a means to further his alleged “broader campaign of anti-China rhetoric” ahead of the November 3 US presidential election, where Mr Trump is seeking a second term.
Ok now Donald Trump has gone too far!! From what I understand, his administration has decided to ban TikTok. That’s so messed up! I make my living on TikTok.