David Shepardson and Jasper Ward
(Reuters) – TikTok plans to continue paying U.S. employees even if the Supreme Court does not strike down a law that would have forced the short-video app to be sold in the U.S. or ban it, company executives said in an internal memo reviewed by Reuters on Tuesday.
The extremely popular platform is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance and has 7,000 employees in the US
“I cannot stress enough that your well-being is a top priority and so, most importantly, I want to emphasize that as US employees, your employment, pay and benefits are secure and our offices will remain open, even if this situation does not pass. not resolved before the January 19 deadline,” according to the memo to TikTok employees. Last week, the US Supreme Court appeared inclined to uphold the law, which was passed in April, despite calls from US President-elect Donald Trump and lawmakers to extend the deadline to January 19.
Trump, whose inauguration takes place the day after the law takes effect, said he should have time after taking office to find a “political solution” to the problem.
“Our leadership team remains laser-focused on planning for various scenarios and continuing to plan the way forward,” TikTok said in a memo.
“The bill is not written to affect the entities through which you are employed, only the user experience in the US,” the company said, adding that it will continue to manage the situation to protect employees and more than 170 million TikTok users in the United States. States.
If a court does not block the law by Sunday, new downloads of TikTok on the Apple (NASDAQ:.O) or Google (NASDAQ:.O) app stores will be banned, but existing users can continue to access the app for a while. The platform’s services would degrade and eventually stop working as other companies would be banned from supporting TikTok.
