• by Tanya Gazdik , May 22, 2024

TikTok is laying off “a large percentage” of the 1,000 employees in its global user operations, content and marketing departments.

The ByteDance-owned app plans to disband its global user operations team, which handles user support and user communications, staffers told The Information, which was the first to report the news. 

Employees affected will be notified today or Thursday, according to The Information's report.

“The video-sharing app already laid off dozens of employees at the top of the year, but The Information noted TikTok rarely carries out large-scale layoffs like those that have been more common at other tech companies,” according to Business Insider. 

Ironically, the Chinese-owned company just yesterday announced its “Change Makers Program,” which highlights fifty creators across the globe who create content that aims to make a positive impact, according toMedia Daily News. 

“TikTok's alleged downsizing comes just weeks after President Joe Biden signed a law banning the platform in the U.S. unless it is sold to an American company,” according toDaily Mail. 

The law gives ByteDance until Jan. 19 to sell TikTok, which used by 170 million Americans, to a U.S.-based company or face a ban. 

“The law prohibits app stores like Apple, and Alphabet's Google, from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting the short video app unless ByteDance divests TikTok,” per Daily Mail. “ The White House has said it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds but not a ban on TikTok.”

A group of TikTok creators last week filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court seeking to block the proposed law.

"Although they come from different places, professions, walks of life, and political persuasions, they are united in their view that TikTok provides them a unique and irreplaceable means to express themselves and form community," said the lawsuit.