TikTok Exodus Continues: US Head of Policy Steps Down Amid Ongoing Negotiations – Digital Music News

Photo Credit: Michael Beckerman / LinkedIn
The Information reported the departure on Wednesday, citing a staff memo sent to TikTok employees. ByteDance has not publicly commented on the departure, but it comes amid a trade war between the United States and China.
Competition to acquire the U.S.-based business of TikTok has heated up, with AppLovin Corp confirming a preliminary bid in an exchange filing. Meanwhile, Amazon and a group led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely are also exploring making a potential bid, though the exact details of the cobbled-together deal remain undisclosed.
So far, Beijing has stonewalled any talks of selling U.S. operations, unwilling to force ByteDance to sell-off the app when 170 million Americans use TikTok. Vice President JD Vance was put in charge of negotiations, with his previous position being that terms of the deal would be finalized by April 5th. That deadline has come and passed, with the Trump administration extending the deadline seemingly with no deal in place.
That includes layoffs that have impacted TikTok’s U.S. e-commerce division and a shift in operational oversight to global leaders from China and Singapore. The company’s U.S. e-commerce team has faced increased scrutiny amid the ongoing trade war between the United States and China—particularly because the platform has underperformed for ByteDance.
As of now, TikTok remains available in the United States, but it’s unclear how long that will last. The new deadline for divestment is June 19—and Beijing is still as unwilling as ever to allow ByteDance to continue with any sale negotiations. ByteDance has signaled before that it would rather see the U.S. operations shuttered entirely than to divest and sell them off to an American buyer.
In February, TikTok Music head Ole Obermann jumped ship, sparking questions about the app’s long-term prospects in the US. That departure was closely followed by TikTok’s Global Business Solutions Head, Blake Chandlee, who exited last month.
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