Short video app TikTok hands over pink slips, fires entire India staff

Short video app TikTok fired its entire India staff on Monday, a report by The Economic Times (ET) said, quoting sources aware of the matter. Forty people were laid off and were offered severance pay of up to nine months. 

"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 were not going to take off because of the government's stance on Chinese apps," a source told ET.

"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 told ET.

The pink slips were handed over after the company decided to close the India remote sales hub. 

"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," TikTok spokesperson said.

Most of the employees of TikTok India were working in Brazil and Dubai markets after the Centre banned the app in India in June 2020. At the time, it had around 200 million users in India. 

A report by Sensor Tower recently said that TikTok was the second most downloaded app in the world in the last quarter. Only Instagram had a higher number of downloads. 

However, the company is under a high level of scrutiny in several major countries. Government officials have banned it in several states in the United States of America (USA), like Kansas, Wisconsin and Virginia. In the European Union (EU), data protection watchdogs in Ireland recently opened two investigations into TikTok, including one on its transfer of personal data to China.