TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer announced early Thursday that he has stepped down from the company he joined just three months ago. President Trump has threatened to ban TikTok, the short-video social media app owned by China's ByteDance, unless it is sold off to a U.S. company. ByteDance is both suing the Trump administration over the executive order and also talking to Microsoft about a potential sale.
Mayer, who was the head of digital streaming at Walt Disney Co. until he joined TikTok on June 1, alluded to the turmoil he stepped into in a letter to employees. "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," he said. Tech analyst Neil Cybart translates:
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