Kevin Mayer, TikTok's CEO, has resigned from his position as the Chinese-owned social media app faces backlash from U.S President Donald Trump.
Banning TikTok
Mayer said in a memo to the employees that in recent weeks, the political environment in the United States has changed, and he had done significant reflection on what the company changes will require and what it means for the global role that he signed up for.
TikTok hired Mayer four months ago to run the famous video-sharing app, which is the first Chinese-owned social media platform that gained success in the Western market.
Mayer was a former top Disney executive, and aside from being the CEO of TikTok, he was also the COO of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, as reported by The New York Times.
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Months after he took the role, TikTok came under fire from the US government, and President Trump has threatened to ban the app in the United States if it is not sold.
A spokesperson from TikTok said in a statement that they fully respect Mayer's decision since the current political climate in the country has changed the scope of his role.
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming said in a memo sent to the employees that the political circumstances that they are operating within had a significant impact on Mayer's job. Zhang also said that Mayer talked to him before resigning and that he wished Mayer well.
Major setback
Even before President Trump issued an executive order calling for the ban of TikTok, the company was already rethinking its corporate structure.
The Wall Street Journal reported in July that ByteDance was considering establishing a headquarters for TikTok outside of China or create a new management board to distance the service from China. A TikTok spokesperson said that they were already evaluating the changes.
Mayer's resignation is a massive setback for the company, according to Edith Yeung, who spent years investing in Chinese companies with venture capital firm 500 Startups. She is a partner with Race Capital, investing in US firms.
According to the executive order, TikTok poses a national security threat because TikTok collects data on users, which threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to the personal and proprietary information of Americans.
The move against TikTok is a part of an escalating US-China tech war that has already affected other Chinese apps and tech firms, such as Huawei and WeChat, as reported by Variety.
TikTok has sued the Trump administration over the executive order, calling it heavily politicized. The company also said that Trump's order illegally rests on emergency powers law in ways that do not apply to TikTok.
The company has also stated that it stores data on its US users in the United States and in Singapore and that it would refuse any requests by the Chinese government for US user data.
TikTok is highly popular in the United States, with 100 million users. The company has now explored in selling its US business, which is worth $40 billion to $50 billion, to Oracle and Microsoft, but there is no update about it yet.
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