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CBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CBC
TikTok CEO asks to meet with industry minister over shutdown order
Social Sharing The CEO of TikTok is asking Industry Minister Melanie Joly for an urgent meeting about the federal government's order directing the company to shut down its Canadian operations. Shou Chew wrote to Joly on July 2 asking for an in-person meeting within two weeks, according to a letter obtained by The Canadian Press. Chew argued that order was made in different circumstances, when it looked like the United States was going to ban TikTok. "There is no upside to this outdated and counterproductive government order, which was issued under a different government and in a different era, and which doesn't reflect today's reality," the letter says. In November, Ottawa ordered the dissolution of TikTok's Canadian business following a national security review of ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese company behind the social media platform. While TikTok has been told to wind down its Canadian operations, the app will continue to be available to Canadians. Chew argued going ahead with that November directive would make Canada an outlier among its allies, including other countries that are part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance. He said the order appeared to be based on "assumptions about TikTok's future in the United States which no longer hold true." Pulling out of sponsorships Canada launched its national security review in the fall of 2023 but did not disclose it until March 2024, when the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok if ByteDance did not divest its stake. But in June, U.S. President Donald Trump extended the deadline to ban TikTok in the U.S. for a third time. In the July 2 letter, Chew said that without Joly's intervention, the company would soon have to fire more than 350 employees in Canada, stop its direct investment in Canada and cut support for Canadian creators and culture. "The wind-up process is rapidly approaching a critical juncture," he wrote. On July 7, TikTok said it was pulling out as a sponsor of several Canadian arts institutions, including the Juno Awards and the Toronto International Film Festival. A spokesperson for Joly did not answer questions about whether the minister has responded to the letter or plans to meet with Chew. Privacy and safety concerns TikTok is challenging the shutdown order in federal court. It launched a legal challenge in December, arguing the government ordered "measures that bear no rational connection to the national security risks it identifies." Ottawa's national security review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with the potential to harm national security. When he was industry minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne said the government was taking action to address "specific national security risks." He didn't specify what those risks are. Privacy and safety concerns about TikTok and ByteDance have focused on Chinese national security laws that compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering. Chew said no evidence has been presented to show that TikTok is a security threat to Canada and the government has not been interested in discussing solutions. He said the government's concerns could be addressed through measures such as enhanced data security protocols and additional transparency and oversight measures. The shutdown order would leave TikTok available to its 14 million users in Canada, Chew said in the letter. But the company would "no longer have a presence or representatives within Canada's jurisdiction," he added. He said the company's Canadian employees have appeared at parliamentary committees, engaged with regulators, trained Canadian law enforcement on how to submit lawful access requests and worked with Elections Canada during the federal election. "TikTok maintaining a presence in Canada means there is a local team who is accountable to Canadian policy-makers and authorities," he wrote.
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
TikTok Hits Cannes, Where a U.S. Ban Seems a Distant Dream
Just six months ago, TikTok's future in the United States looked doomed. The Supreme Court had upheld a federal law that called for it to be sold from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or face a ban. It even went dark for half a day. But this week on the French Riviera, the specter of TikTok's American demise seemed like a distant fever dream. The company — which remains under the same Chinese ownership — set up shop at the swanky Carlton Hotel during the annual Cannes Lions advertising festival, with a space it dubbed 'TikTok Garden,' where employees held court with marketers, creators and its fans. Shou Chew, TikTok's chief executive, met with creators who posted about the meetings at the hotel, where rooms in the summer often start at 1,000 euros ($1,150) per night. TikTok also paid to bring some of its most popular creators to Cannes for the week, including @ReesaTeesa, whose relationship drama shared on TikTok is now being made into a TV show, and a comedian who goes by @AdamW. Creators spoke on panels and mingled with enthusiastic fans, who lined up nightly for TikTok's evening 'Frosé Soirées.' Other TikTok executives, including its advertising team leaders, met with marketers, played pickleball with at least one creator and took a boat to a restaurant with employees from an influencer agency. The activities underscore TikTok's careful efforts to outmaneuver Washington while maintaining its appeal to advertisers, creators and its more than 1 billion global users. President Trump on Thursday said he had signed an executive order granting the company another 90 days — to mid-September — to find a new owner to comply with a federal law that requires the company to change its ownership structure to resolve national security concerns. The company, which was also in Cannes last month as an official partner of the town's famous film festival, has maintained a high-profile presence at cultural and industry events in the face of intense political upheaval. Nearly two weeks after President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed the law banning TikTok last year, Mr. Chew attended the Met Gala as a co-chair. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Business Insider
24-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
TikTok enters its efficiency era
Belt-tightening is underway at TikTok. After spending big over the last two years to get its e-commerce business off the ground, TikTok is taking new steps to squeeze out a return. Since February, TikTok Shop has pushed out staffers based on performance, added stricter return-to-office rules, and had two rounds of layoffs, all while tacking on new measures to keep costs at bay, seven staffers told Business Insider. TikTok has also introduced cost-cutting measures to the broader company, including new budget caps for travel. On Wednesday, the company began its latest layoffs, targeting e-commerce operations staff and some employees who work with global brands. In emails this week to laid-off workers, the company said it was reducing complexity "to create a more efficient operating model for the team's long-term growth." TikTok's CEO Shou Chew hinted at a spending crackdown in the pursuit of efficiency in February. He told staff he wanted to review each of the company's teams and remove unnecessary layers, The Information reported. Chew's directive mirrors similar efforts by executives at Meta, Microsoft, and Google, which have recently stripped away employee perks, trimmed head count, and shifted performance standards in pursuit of cost savings. TikTok's cost cuts come at a tenuous moment for the company, which could face a US ban if it fails to reach an agreement with the Trump administration over a 2024 divestment law. The company has made broad changes to its US team in recent months, including consolidating control under Chinese leadership, employees previously told BI. And while TikTok videos are as popular as ever, the Shop business has failed to meet expectations. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment. The workplace changes and broader uncertainty have weighed on some. "For the past six months, it's been very up and down as far as morale and people's sense of security at work," a laid off staffer said. How TikTok is cutting costs In addition to cutting costs through layoffs, some teams have refocused performance goals this quarter around costs, profit, and revenue metrics like gross merchandise value, two staffers said. The company also plans to stop subsidizing free shipping for TikTok Shop sellers later this month after previous reductions. The move would bring TikTok's free shipping subsidies more in line with competitors like Amazon, but could irk some seller partners, one staffer said. There have been signs of broader cost cutting, too. Last week, TikTok told staffers across the company it was instituting a stricter approval process for work travel. The company is asking for more information about travel arrangements to better understand the impact on the budget, and setting spend limits for hotels and airfare. TikTok spent big on e-commerce in the US TikTok's e-commerce division was an easy target for cost cutting. The company spent hundreds of millions of dollars getting the business off the ground. The shopping platform is a big focus for owner ByteDance, which is trying to replicate the e-commerce success of its Chinese sister app, Douyin. ByteDance's leadership has been disappointed with the progress of its US business, which failed to hit many of its goals in 2024. US sales on the platform have taken a hit this year, due partly to global tariffs. Weekly US order volume on TikTok Shop dropped by around 20% in mid-May compared to mid-April after tariffs went into effect, for example, according to internal data viewed by BI. In an effort to turn things around, the company has shaken up its e-commerce leadership. The changes gave greater power to executives who have experience working on Douyin. After several layoff rounds, a string of performance-related cuts and team reorgs, and other unrelated worker attrition, the US TikTok Shop is looking trimmer. BI was unable to determine the extent of the recent cuts, but the impacted teams were consolidated, per a memo sent on Wednesday evening and viewed by BI. In the wake of organizational changes, the teams would "move faster, operate leaner, and be more efficient," e-commerce leader Mu Qing wrote.
Al Arabiya
20-02-2025
- Business
- Al Arabiya
TikTok laying of staff at trust, safety unit across global offices: Sources
TikTok is laying off global staff at its trust and safety unit which handles content moderation as part of a restructuring, three sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Two sources said that Adam Presser, operations head of the app who also oversees the unit, sent a memo out to staff on Thursday notifying them of the move. The layoffs began the same day for teams in Asia and Europe, Middle East and Africa, two of the sources said. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The move comes as TikTok's fate remains up in the air. The popular short video app used by nearly half of all Americans went dark briefly last month, before a law took effect on January 19 that required its Chinese owner ByteDance either to sell it on national security grounds or face a ban. In January last year, TikTok Shou Chew testified before Congress alongside Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and other tech and media heads in a hearing where lawmakers accused the companies of failing to protect children from escalating threats of sexual predation on their platforms. Replying to questions from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, TikTok's CEO had said that the company would spend more than $2 billion on trust and safety efforts. In October last year, the company laid off hundreds of employees from its global workforce, including a large number of staff in Malaysia as it shifts focus towards a greater use of AI in content moderation. TikTok says it has 40,000 trust and safety professionals worldwide. Reuters was not able to immediately establish the extent of these cuts.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TikTok restructures trust and safety team, lays off staff in unit, sources say
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - TikTok is laying off global staff at its trust and safety unit which handles content moderation as part of a restructuring, three sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Two sources said that Adam Presser, operations head of the app who also oversees the unit, sent a memo out to staff on Thursday notifying them of the move. The layoffs began the same day for teams in Asia and Europe, Middle East and Africa, two of the sources said. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The move comes as TikTok's fate remains up in the air. The popular short video app used by nearly half of all Americans went dark briefly last month, before a law took effect on January 19 that required its Chinese owner ByteDance either to sell it on national security grounds or face a ban. In January last year, TikTok Shou Chew testified before Congress alongside Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and other tech and media heads in a hearing where lawmakers accused the companies of failing to protect children from escalating threats of sexual predation on their platforms. Replying to questions from Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, TikTok's CEO had said that the company would spend more than $2 billion on trust and safety efforts. In October last year, the company laid off hundreds of employees from its global workforce, including a large number of staff in Malaysia as it shifts focus towards a greater use of AI in content moderation. TikTok says it has 40,000 trust and safety professionals worldwide. Reuters was not able to immediately establish the extent of these cuts. Sign in to access your portfolio
