TikTok is one of the technology companies that could be most affected by the outcome of the US elections. But as the result nears, its employees have been surprisingly oblivious to the high-level political drama that could decide the app’s fate.
A product manager from San Jose, California, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, revealed that he was more worried about the TikTok ban before joining the company earlier this year than he is now. He says his colleagues rarely bring it up, and that his team plans future product features in the app as if there wasn’t a possible ban involved: “Now I feel indifferent. There’s little you can do as a normal employee, and everyone think like that, so the result is the same as always.”
WIRED spoke with six employees of TikTok and its parent company ByteDance under the condition of anonymity, all of whom reported that there is little, if any, talk about the election or American politics within their ranks.
Outside there is speculation
TikTok employees in the US suggest that discussions about the ban occur more with their international counterparts or with friends who are not part of ByteDance: “There is almost a consensus not to talk about this topic. Very occasionally one of “We may say that maybe it’s time to abandon ship, but those discussions rarely come up,” clarifies the company’s product manager.
In April, the PAFACA (Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act) law was enacted, requiring TikTok to sell its US operations to a domestic buyer or else it will be banned. But months later, the issue almost completely disappeared from the news headlines, although politicians continued to talk about China on the eve of the election. So far, Kamala Harris has not made any comments about what she would do with the company if she were elected president.but experts expect it to more or less carry out the Biden administration’s technology policy, including following up on the PAFACA Act.
For its part, Donald Trump publicly backtracked on his 2020 stance on banning the app after being pressured by Jeff Yass, a billionaire ByteDance investor. In September, the Republican candidate said in a campaign video that “for everyone who wants to save America, vote for Trump,” but he didn’t mention saving TikTok as a central theme in his speech, and people aren’t sure. if he will maintain his last opinion if elected. The company has maintained a neutral position without expressing its support for any of the candidates; also did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
The indifference of employees towards the presidential elections is also due to the fact that neither of the two candidates represents a promising future for the company. “In the long run, neither of them will favor us, because TikTok cannot escape its original sin of being a Chinese company,” says a San Jose-based ByteDance research scientist. Other employees interviewed by WIRED comment that they now talk much less about the ban than in April, when the US government order was first issued for ByteDance to divest from the social network.
The DOJ accuses the social network of collecting data on citizens’ opinions and using it to manipulate the content of the appallowing China “to continue its current negative influence operations.”
They do not consider it an “immediate” danger
The scientific researcher says that colleagues who were really worried about losing their jobs might have already left the company instead of waiting: “Starting in the Trump era, there have been several rounds of news about TikTok being banned, but yet it has survived until now. It’s like a false alarm, people experience it so many times that they become less sensitive to it.” He adds that the lack of anxiety is also due to the belief that their job security is not “immediately” at stake.
Most employees WIRED spoke to do not foresee immediate layoffs, believing the court battle over the ban could take months, or even years, to conclude. They mention that they will start to worry when “the moment of truth” arrives. And they are right, the fate of the social network may still take several months to decide.; The PAFACA law requires that the ban, if there is no divestment, take place in January, with a possible 90-day period granted by the US president. However, since TikTok sued the federal government to appeal the ban, the case It is currently being heard in the Court of Appeals in Washington, DC. If he loses, he is expected to try to take the case to the Supreme Court.
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