TikTok chief exec quits as Trump escalates attack
LOS ANGELES, United States — TikTok chief executive Kevin Mayer said Wednesday 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. The firm has denied the allegations.
In a letter to staff, Mayer said: "It is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company."
TikTok became an unusual avenue of disagreement between the US and China, which has been stuck in a trade war that had since been eclipsed by the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Recently, both countries agreed to proceed with the first phase of their trade deal struck to ease tensions between the two world powers.
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese technology giant. Apart from the US, the video-streaming app has come under intense scrutiny in India, which also banned the app last June.
That said, other countries are also not convinced of the privacy risks TikTok allegedly poses absent any concrete evidence. In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said there is no proof the app is misusing data, suggesting Canberra is unlikely to enforce prohibitions.
In the Philippines, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque also revealed there are no plans to ban the app which has over 1 billion users to date. — with Philstar.com
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