TikTok’s head of US trust and safety, Eric Han, will depart the company on May 12, leaving the popular short-form video app without a key executive as it fights the threat of a ban in the country, the company said in an official statement.
It is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance and has already been banned from government-issued phones in countries such as Canada and Australia over concerns about whether the Chinese government can access user data or influence what people see on the popular app.
The company also faces calls from some US lawmakers to ban the app across the country. TikTok has long said that it has never shared data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked, Reuters reported.
Han, who has been at TikTok since 2019, oversaw efforts like improving content moderation and reducing election misinformation.
He ran trust and safety for the company’s US Data Security (USDS), a division that was created to store US data in the country on servers controlled by Oracle, in an effort to appease security concerns.
His upcoming departure also comes as TikTok is preparing to hold a presentation for advertisers in New York on Thursday. The Verge first reported the news of Han’s upcoming departure.
Earlier in April, Montana lawmakers passed a bill to ban the popular short-form video app TikTok from operating in the state, the latest threat to the Chinese-owned app’s existence in the US.
The bill, known as SB 419, prohibited mobile app stores from offering TikTok for download to users in Montana. The Montana House voted 54-43 to approve the ban.
Last month, a congressional committee grilled TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew about whether the Chinese government could access user data or influence what Americans see on the app.
(With Reuters inputs)
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