TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has quitted the company one day after the Los Angeles-based tech firm filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over an executive order banning any transactions with its parent company ByteDance.
In a news release, ByteDance said the company respected Mayer’s decision and thanked him for his efforts for TikTok’s development, adding TikTok’s U.S. General Manager Vanessa Pappas will take up Mayer’s position and continue working as leader of the team in the country.
The 58-year-old Mayer joined TikTok on June 1. Prior to his appointment as the company’s CEO, he was chairman of the Direct-to-Consumer and International division of The Walt Disney Company.
Mayer on Wednesday sent a letter to employees, noting that ByteDance’s founder Zhang Yiming understood his decision and supported it, saying this decision “had nothing to do with the company, what I see for our future, or the belief I have in what we are building.”
Mayer also emphasized that even though he quit, he had tremendous confidence that TikTok is a safe, unique, creative and inclusive platform to its almost 100 million American users.
TikTok is a video-sharing, music and social networking service owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance, and specializes in user-made short videos.
Trump and a number of other U.S. politicians have repeatedly speculated that TikTok poses a national security threat because it is owned by a Chinese company, though no evidence has been provided to support these allegations.
Earlier this month, Trump cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and issued executive orders banning any U.S. transactions with TikTok and WeChat, starting in 45 days.
TikTok filed a lawsuit over the executive order Monday, arguing that the order is unconstitutional and a misuse of the IEEPA.
