Short-video platform TikTok sacked all of its 40 employees working in India. These personnel were working on the company’s Dubai and Brazil markets and were informed that they would be given six to seven months of severance pay, as per an Economic Times report. The company informed the employees about the lay off over a phone call.
It is believed that that the ByteDance-owned app did not have much hope in its Indian operations evr since the Indian government took a hostile stance on Chinese apps . “The TikTok India employees were told that February 28 would be their last day and were given feelers to look out for other opportunities for some time as it was conveyed that restarting India operations was not going to take off because of the government's stance on Chinese apps,” ET quoted a source as saying.
"The entire team was informed. We were anyway told some time ago that business in India may be shut off, so look for jobs. Most people will be given 90 days severance," another source added.
A company official assured that they will support the laid-off employees at this difficult time. "We have taken the decision to close our India remote sales support hub, which was put in place at the end of 2020 to provide support to our global and regional sales teams. We greatly appreciate these employees and their impact on our company, and will ensure they are supported at this difficult time," a TikTok India spokesperson said.
In June 2020, the Ministry of Information Technology (MeitY) banned TikTok along with 50-plus other Chinese apps. The MeitY issued the order that the apps are "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order."
Other banned apps included in the list were Tencent Holdings' WeChat and Alibaba's UC Browser.
