Ali Hasan
TikTok has decided to fire more than 2,000 employees in India citing the ban that was imposed on the app in 2020 due to the conflict between India and China. TikTok was banned by the Indian government, citing reasons of national security and defense.
China’s ByteDance has decided to reduce the size of its Indian team which is over 2000 in number. Only critical jobs will be retained in the country and everyone else will be fired. More than two-thirds of the company’s workforce is expected to be eliminated.
This was done in the light of uncertainty about a potential comeback. This month, due to issues as compliance and privacy India decided to retain its ban on over 59 Chinese apps including TikTok. On 27th January, this news was broken to the team through an internal memo.
In the memo, ByteDance said that they thought initially that the ban would be short lived, but it has not been the case. They said that due to TikTok being un-operational in India, they cannot keep full staff and also they don’t really know when they can make a comeback.
ByteDance said in its statement, that it was disheartening to not have any clear direction on how and when its apps could be reinstated. India was TikTok largest market before lockdown and ByteDance had laid out plans in 2019 to invest $1 billion in India which is now also cancelled.
Prior to the ban, India was the biggest international market for TikTok, which had amassed over 200 million monthly active users in the world’s second largest internet market. India is undeniably an important market for TikTok. Out of the nearly 2 billion downloads in April, on Google and Apple play stores put together, over 30% came from India.
TikTok CEO Vanessa Pappas and VP of Global Business Blake Chandlee shared more information about the move in a memo to India employees today. “We initially hoped that this situation would be short-lived, and that we would be able to resolve this quickly. 7 months later, we find that has not been the case. Many of you have patiently waited to hear how this would play out, which has been very stressful. Thank you for your continued belief and trust in us,” they wrote.
“As you can imagine, a decision of this magnitude is not easy. For the last several months, our management team has worked tirelessly to avoid having to separate anyone from the company. We’ve cut expenses, while still paying benefits. However, we simply cannot responsibly stay fully staffed while our apps remain un-operational. We are fully aware of the impact that this decision has for all of our employees in India, and we empathize with our team.”
While no one is certain how the issue will unfold, the company will have to resort to legal recourse if the ban is not lifted. Archana Tewary, partner at J Sagar Associates, welcomes the government’s intention to protect data of Indian citizens, but believes banning specific apps can be of little help in absence of laws to back them.
“We need robust laws that will regulate companies’ ability to share and retain data of individuals, and a robust enforcement mechanism for the same. We must also pay close attention to consents we as individuals provide when using apps,” she said.
On the other hand, TikTok India in its statement has maintained it complies “with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and has not shared information of our users in India with any foreign government including Chinese government”.
Citing national security concerns, previous President of United States, Donald Trump ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok, and also imposed restrictions that would have effectively barred its use. Australia also has the app TikTok under scrutiny, citing potential foreign interference and data privacy issues risks that it may pose to the Australian users.
