TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer Quits: Resignation Seen As An Attempt to Improve Relations With The US Regulator

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer Quits: The current move aims to strengthen the Chinese app's position in the US and improve its current standing with the regulators.

(FILES) In this file photo Kevin Mayer, chairman of direct-to-consumer and international business at The Walt Disney Company, attends the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho. - TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer said August 26 he has quit the wildly popular social media platform. His resignation comes after US President Donald Trump claimed the video app could be used to spy on Americans and ordered a crackdown on the Chinese-owned company. (Photo by Drew Angerer / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

New York: Days after the US has threatened to ban the app, the TikTok Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayer has quit his position and general manager Vanessa Pappas will take his position on an interim basis, according to the letter sent by the CEO to the employees. Also Read: Accenture To Lay Off 25K 'Low-Performing' Employees Globally, Thousands Of Indians Set To Lose Jobs In Covid-19 Pandemic As per a report in the CNN Business report, the letter sent to the employee reads as, "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." However, he stated that the decision has nothing to do with the company or its future. He also stated it will not have any potential impact on user experience and promised that the company will remain creative and diverse than ever. Mayer added, "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 was quoted that he decided to leave the organisation after Trump ordered TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US assets to a US company within 90 days, as per the Guardian report. The current move seems to aim at strengthening the Chinese app's position in the US and improve its current standing with the regulators. TikTok has hired Mayer for the top post just four months back. He is a former top Disney executive and the resignation appeared to be designed to bolster the app's American credentials and improve its standing with US regulators. Mayer, 58, was a chief operating officer of ByteDance, the Chinese conglomerate that owns TikTok. The app has remained under constant scrutiny from the US government because of its national security concerns, and the Trump administration has also threatened to ban the app. TikTok’s app has been downloaded about 1.9 billion times worldwide, including 172 million downloads in the United States.  However, the app has been banned by several government agencies, including branches of the military, where employees were barred from downloading or using the app.