TikTok, the popular short video app banned in India since 2020, has laid off its roughly 40 remaining workers in the country amid increasing regulatory scrutiny of Chinese tech companies by New Delhi, reports the South China Morning Post. “We have taken the decision to close our India remote sales support hub, which was put in place at the end of 2020 to provide support to our global and regional sales teams,” a TikTok representative said on Monday.
“We greatly appreciate these employees and their impact on our company, and will ensure they are supported at this difficult time.”
The dismissed people, who mostly supported markets outside India such as Dubai and Brazil, have been told that February 28 would be their last day as TikTok believed that restarting its Indian operations would not work “because of the government’s stance on Chinese apps,” according to a report by local newspaper The Economic Times, citing an unnamed source.
