Bytedance to layoff a huge chunk of Indian employees

Announcement comes after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology made the ban on TikTok and 58 other apps permanent

Jan 28, 2021 04:35:00 AM | Article | Campaign India Team

Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, has laid off a huge chunk of its 2,000 employee workforce in India. The company will only be retaining its critical workforce according to an article published by Techcrunch.

The employees were told about this on 27 January and they have taken to LinkedIn to announce their sudden layoffs.

The app was first banned by the Indian Government in June 2020. Last week, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated that the ban is permanent. Prior to the ban TikTok had more than 200 million monthly active users in the country.

TikTok was among the 59 apps banned by the Government to ensure safety and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace.

In a statement shared with Campaign India, a TikTok spokesperson, said, “We have worked steadfastly to comply with the Government of India order issued on June 29, 2020. We continually strive to make our apps comply with local laws and regulations and do our best to address any concerns they have. It is therefore disappointing that in the ensuing seven months, despite our efforts we have not been given a clear direction on how and when our apps could be reinstated. It is deeply regretful that after supporting our 2000+ employees in India for more than half a year, we have no choice but to scale back the size of our workforce. We look forward to receiving the opportunity to relaunch TikTok and support the hundreds of millions of users, artists, story-tellers, educators and performers in India.”