- TikTok will send layoff notices to an unspecified number of employees tonight
TikTok will begin hiring a “large percentage” of its 1,000-man global workforce today, it has emerged.
The company, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, will lay off staff across its global user operations, content and marketing teams, current employees said. Information.
The exact number of layoffs is unknown, but experts say TikTok is completely disbanding its global operations team, which handles communications and user support.
Such a large-scale layoff is unusual for ByteDance, which experts say typically takes cost-cutting measures in smaller stages.
TikTok’s alleged downsizing comes just weeks after President Joe Biden signed a law banning the platform in the United States unless it is sold to an American company.
TikTok will begin hiring a “large percentage” of its 1,000-man global workforce today, it has emerged. Current employees allege that the company will send layoff notices to an unspecified number of staff on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. In the photo: TikTok headquarters in Singapore
Current employees told the news outlet that TikTok would send layoff notices to an unspecified number of staff from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.
Sources also stated that the global user operations team will be eliminated.
Members of that team who are not laid off will be reassigned to other departments, such as trust and safety, marketing, content and product.
TikTok already laid off dozens of employees earlier this year, but is understood to “rarely” carry out large-scale layoffs that have become more common at other tech companies.
It comes as Biden last month signed a law giving ByteDance until January 19 to sell TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans, to a US-based company or face a ban.
The law prohibits app stores like Apple and Alphabet’s Google from offering TikTok and prohibits internet hosting services from supporting the short video app unless ByteDance divests TikTok.
The White House has said it wants an end to Chinese ownership for national security reasons, but not a ban on TikTok.
TikTok’s alleged downsizing comes just weeks after President Joe Biden (pictured yesterday) signed a law banning the platform in the US unless it is sold to an American company.
A group of TikTok creators said last week they filed a lawsuit in US federal court to block the proposed law.
“Although they come from different places, professions, lifestyles, and political leanings, they are united in their view that TikTok provides them with a unique and irreplaceable means to express themselves and form a community,” the lawsuit says.
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, a law firm representing the creators, provided a copy of the lawsuit to Reuters which it said had been filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The lawsuit, which seeks injunctive relief, says the law threatens free speech and “promises to shut down a discreet media outlet that has become a part of American life.”
ByteDance filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month, arguing that the law violates the U.S. Constitution on several grounds, including violating First Amendment free speech protections.
TikTok creators filed a similar lawsuit in 2020 to block a previous attempt to block the app, and also sued last year in Montana asking a court to block a state ban.
