TikTok is expected to disband global user operations team amid round of layoffs

More personnel changes are in the cards for TikTok. The embattled app is reportedly preparing a round of layoffs that will affect employees on its operations, content, and marketing teams.

According to The Information, the layoffs will affect “a large percentage” of the four-digit workforce assigned to the three aforementioned teams. The global user operations team is expected to be disbanded entirely, with the remaining workers folded into teams like trust & safety and product.

The Information report cited current employees familiar with TikTok’s plans. After the publication of the article, TikTok Head of Operations Adam Presser and Head of Brand and Communications Zenia Mucha (pictured above) indicated that they could start conveying personnel changes to employees as early as Thursday, May 23.

TikTok’s operations team has been in flux since Presser took over for outgoing operations chief V Pappas last year. Presser soon announced his plan to unlock TikTok’s “full potential” through a top-to-bottom reorganization of the operations division. And in February 2024, The Information revealed Presser’s intention to unite operations with trust & safety by bringing the latter division into his jurisdiction

Mucha, a Disney veteran, officially joined TikTok a few months after Presser’s promotion. She had previously worked alongside the app on its $13.4 million lobbying effort in Washington.

Despite TikTok’s massive investment in lobbying, it was not able to prevent the U.S. government from passing a law that forces ByteDance to either divest its popular video app or remove it from the U.S. market. The Information noted that the upcoming wave of job cuts will affect some employees outside of the U.S.-based team, so TikTok seems to be setting itself up for the protracted legal fight it will need to win to stymie Congressional attempts at regulation.

TikTok has already experienced multiple rounds of layoffs over the past year. Last August, it let go of a small number of employees in its music division. Then, in January 2024, as several tech companies went through layoffs, TikTok cut about 60 workers in its sales and advertising divisions.