Los Angeles – US: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer said on Wednesday he has quit the company just after 100 days the former Disney executive joined the the company as tensions soar between Washington and Beijing over the Chinese-owned video platform. Mayer’s resignation comes days after TikTok filed a lawsuit challenging a crackdown by the US government over claims the wildly popular social media app can be used to spy on Americans.

Kevin Mayer resigned as soar tension between US and China

Mayer announced his decision to step down in a note to employees as TikTok came under pressure from the Trump administration over its links to China. Mayer did not anticipate the extent to which TikTok would become involved in tensions between China and the U.S and the executive didn’t sign up for this.

Vanessa Pappas may becomes the head of the company

Vanessa Pappas, currently general manager of TikTok, will reportedly become the interim head.

The company holds firm that it has never provided any US user data to the Chinese government, and Beijing has blasted Trump’s crackdown as political.

We appreciate that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Kevin’s role would be going forward, and fully respect his decision. We thank him for his time at the company and wish him well.

TikTok Spokesperson 

TikTok has been at the center of a diplomatic storm between the US and China, and President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 6 giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance effectively setting a deadline for a sale of the app to a US company. The app has until mid-November to divest itself.

TikTok, which has been downloaded 175 million times in the US and more than a billion times around the world, argued in the suit that Trump’s order was a misuse of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because the platform on which users share often playful short-form videos is not an unusual and extraordinary threat. The platform’s kaleidoscopic feeds of clips feature everything from dance routines and hair-dye tutorials to jokes about daily life and politics.

Source: TechCrunch