TikTok executives began talks with the British government a few months ago to move their global headquarters to London. A source who is aware of the problem told Reuters that he wanted to distance himself from the Chinese government, whose social network was often accused of being too strict.
For example, in the United States, there is great fear that data collected by the platform will not fall into the hands of Chinese authorities. The latter is thought to have put pressure on ByteDance, the Chinese parent company TikTok, to access users’ personal information. However, those responsible for social networking will not make a choice.
Discussions with the UK interrupted?
In addition to London and its project, which will create 3,000 jobs, other cities are being considered. The Times even reported that talks with Britain were disrupted because of the tense “geopolitical context” between Britain and China. The person quoted by Reuters points out that London is not the only metropolitan city surveyed by the company.
However, TikTok has ambitious recruitment policies in several countries outside China. The number of social media employees working in London and other big cities is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. In California, the company hired Kevin Meyer, former CEO of Walt Disney, to give him the role of CEO.