TikTok is planning to lay off large swaths of its operations and marketing workforce, current employees briefed on the plans told CNN. The global layoffs are expected to hit teams that handle user support and communications, as well as content and marketing. TikTok’s current global user operations team will be dismantled as part of the move, and remaining employees will be distributed among the company’s trust and safety, marketing, content and product teams.
News of the layoffs was first reported by The Information. TikTok didn’t respond to a request for comment. Some TikTok employees were notified of the layoff plans Tuesday evening — after The Information’s report — when Adam Presser, the company’s head of operations, and Chief Brand and Communications Officer Zenia Mucha sent a message to affected teams, the people said. The layoffs had been in the works for some time, perhaps almost a year, but recent turnover in TikTok’s marketing, trust and safety and operations teams prompted delays, one of the employees told CNN.
The layoffs are not related to the legal and political turmoil facing the company in the United States that could end in a potential nationwide ban of the TikTok app, the person added. It is unclear how many TikTok employees could lose their jobs. The Information reported that a “large percentage” of the roughly 1,000 employees who work on the affected teams could be laid off. In 2023, TikTok disclosed that it had 7,000 employees in the United States alone.
