TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer leaves the company in just four months as ‘political dynamics’ changed what he signed up for

• Kevin Mayer in an email to employees said that he was leaving the company as political dynamics had changed what he signed up for.
• Mayer had left Disney, where he worked for over 20 years in two different tenures, to join TikTok.
• TikTok has been in trouble in the US, with the Donald Trump government having given a November 12 deadline for the Chinese company to sell its business in the country.

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer, the former Disney executive who took charge in May 2020, has resigned from his position, according to FT. Mayer’s decision comes as US President Donald Trump threatened to ban the app unless the company sold off its business to an American company.

The Trump government has given TikTok owner ByteDance until November 12 to sell its business in the US.

“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. Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company,” Mayer wrote in an email to employees, as seen by FT.

Mayer had left Disney, where he worked for over 20 years in two different tenures, to join TikTok.

Recently, TikTok had said it was suing the US government for being used to suit Trump’s election narrative and said it had taken “extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok's US user data.”

TikTok was in talks with Microsoft to sell its US business while Trump continued to target the app for its Chinese origins.

Meanwhile in India, TikTok was banned in late June by the Indian government, as were 58 other Chinese apps in the middle of rising tensions at the India-China border. Since then, TikTok has also been in talks to sell its India business with one of the contenders to buy it being Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance.

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