The Bytedance-owned social media app TikTok has fired its entire India staff of around 40 people on Monday. Employees at the India office were mostly working for the Brazil and Dubai markets. The decision has not been a big surprise as TikTok was banned in India about three years ago.
“We have taken the decision to close our India remote sales support hub, which was put in place at the end of 2020 to provide support to our global and regional sales teams. We greatly appreciate these employees and their impact on our company, and will ensure they are supported at this difficult time.” TikTok Spokesperson said.
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The affected employees will be given up to nine months of severance pay, according to an ET report. “The TikTok India employees were told that February 28 would be their last day and were given feelers to look out for other opportunities for some time as it was conveyed that restarting India operations was not going to take off because of the government’s stance on Chinese apps,” a source close told ET.
US TikTok ban gaining ground
There has been a swirl of efforts to limit the use of TikTok in the United States – which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, over fears that US user data could be passed on to China’s government.
In December last year, US President Joe Biden signed a law banning TikTok from government devices and more than half of US states have passed similar restrictions, with college campuses and even some elementary schools following suit.
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The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a vote this month on a bill aimed at blocking the use of TikTok in the United States.
TikTok has been the most downloaded app in the United States since 2021, according to data from Sensor Tower, a data analytics company.
In addition to bills pending in Congress, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has been in talks with TikTok for more than two years on a path forward after ordering ByteDance to divest TikTok in 2020 over concerns that user data could be passed onto the Chinese government.
