TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigns amid lawsuit against Donald Trump administration
Aug 27, 2020
San Francisco, Aug 27 TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has put in his resignation, months after taking over as chief executive of Chinese-video sharing app.
"It is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company," Mayer said in an email to employees according to the New York Times.
Mayer's move comes amid enormous backlash and threats of a ban on ByteDance the parent company of TikTok, from US President Donald Trump
"In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, 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," Mayer wrote in an email to the employees, reported the New York Times.
Vanessa Pappas, general manager of TikTok in North America, will take over as interim global head of the company.
TikTok, in an emailed statement, confirmed the departure and said that the political dynamics of the last few months had "significantly changed" the scope of Mayer's role.
ByteDance's founder and CEO Yiming Zhang said in a separate letter that the company was "moving quickly to find resolutions to the issues that we face globally, particularly in the U.S. and India."
The development comes days after TikTok sued the Trump administration over an executive order banning transactions in the United States with the popular short-form video-sharing app.
On August 6, Trump signed an executive order banning any US transactions with ByteDance, set to take effect in 45 days. On August 14, the US President issued another executive order, requiring ByteDance to divest its interests in TikTok's operations in the US within 90 days.
