TikTok sought to assure its US employees on Tuesday that they will still have jobs next week, even if the Supreme Court upholds a law that would see the video app banned in the US on Sunday.
The message is a change of tone from TikTok, which otherwise said it was confident it would emerge victorious from its legal challenge to the law. This also shows that the company has no plans to leave the United States in the near term, even if it were banned.
TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is fighting a law last year that would ban the app unless its U.S. operations were sold to a non-Chinese owner. TikTok sent a message to its staff on Tuesday acknowledging uncertainty over the upcoming decision and assuring employees that they will continue to be paid. The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision before the law takes effect on Sunday.
“Your employment, pay and benefits are secure and our offices will remain open, even if this situation is not resolved before the January 19 deadline,” Nicky Raghavan, TikTok’s global head of human resources, wrote in the message, which was obtained by the New York Times. “The bill is not written in a way that impacts the entities you work through, only the experience of US users.”
The law would penalize app stores and internet hosting services for distributing or updating the TikTok app, effectively banning the platform. It would not force the closure of TikTok offices in the United States.
The message also emphasized: “Our leadership team remains focused on planning for various scenarios and continues to plan the way forward.”
The note, which praises employees for their “resilience and dedication,” is one of the company’s few internal acknowledgments of the legal battle of recent months. Despite the existential threat TikTok faces, there has been little recognition within the company that it may soon be banned in the United States, former employees told the Times in November. Executives have at times downplayed the situation, suggesting in an all-hands meeting that it will one day be the subject of a Hollywood movie, some of them said.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a question about its latest U.S. staff count, but the message was sent to an internal “US Team News” channel with more than 13,000 employees. TikTok previously said it had more than 7,000 U.S. employees.
“As we await the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision before January 19, we know you have many questions and would like to be able to provide a clear roadmap of next steps,” Ms. Raghavan wrote. He added: “We know it’s unsettling not knowing exactly what will happen next.”