TikTok is one of the technology companies that could be most affected by the outcome of the US elections. But as the election result approached, employees found themselves surprisingly disengaged from the high-level political drama that could decide the app’s fate.
A San Jose-based product manager, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, says he was more worried about the TikTok ban before joining the company earlier this year than he is now. He says his colleagues rarely bring up the topic and his team plans future features of the product in the app as if it won’t be banned soon.
“Now I feel indifferent,” he says. “There’s only so much you can do as an ordinary employee, and everyone thinks that way, so the result is that everything stays the same.”
WIRED spoke to a half-dozen employees at TikTok and its parent company ByteDance on condition of anonymity, and all of them report little, if any, discussion about the election or US politics within their ranks.
While outsiders speculate about the app’s possible demise, US-based TikTok employees say discussions about the ban happen more with their international counterparts or non-ByteDance friends. “There is almost a consensus not to talk about this issue. Very occasionally, some of us might say that maybe it’s time to abandon ship, but those discussions rarely come up,” says the TikTok product manager.
In April, the Protecting Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act (PAFACA) was enacted, requiring TikTok to sell its US operation to a domestic buyer or be banned. But months later, the issue virtually disappeared from the news headlines, even as politicians continued to talk about China approaching elections.
So far, Kamala Harris has not made any comments about what she would do to TikTok as president of the United States, but experts expect her to more or less carry out the Biden administration’s technology policy, including compliance with the PAFACA Act.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, publicly backtracked on his 2020 stance of banning the app. after allegedly being pressured by Jeff Yassa billionaire ByteDance investor. More recently, Trump said in a September campaign video that “everyone who wants to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump.” However, he didn’t make saving TikTok a central topic of conversation at his campaign stops, and people aren’t sure if he would stand by his latest opinion if elected.
