TikTok fires entire India staff : Report

Most of the employees of TikTok India were working in Brazil and Dubai markets after the app was banned in India in June 2020.

TikTok, the app for short videos owned by ByteDance has fired all of its employees in India on Monday as reported by The Economic Times, quoting sources aware of the matter. The company gave severance pay of up to nine months to the forty individuals who were laid off.

"The TikTok India employees were informed that February 28 would be their last day and were given feelers to look out for other opportunities for some time," a source told ET. "It was conveyed that restarting India operations were going to take off because of the government's stance on Chinese apps."

"It was communicated to the entire team. In any case, we were previously informed that there was a chance that business in India might be interrupted; thus, get employment. Most employees will receive a 90-day notice of termination,"

"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." quoted a TikTok Spokesperson

After the Centre banned the app in India in June 2020, the majority of TikTok India's staff worked in the Brazilian and Dubai markets. Around 200 million Indians were using it at the time.

TikTok was the second-most downloaded app worldwide in the most recent quarter, according to a Sensor Tower research. Only Instagram had more downloads overall.

However, the business is the subject of intense examination in a number of important nations. In a number of US states, including Wisconsin, Kansas, and Virginia, it has been outlawed by the government. Data protection watchdogs in Ireland have recently launched two investigations into TikTok, one of which focuses on the app's transmission of personal data to China.