Kevin Mayer will not be getting his fairytale ending at TikTok after all. Less than three months after the former Disney executive traded his Mickey Mouse ears for viral dance videos, he is stepping down.
His appointment was a coup for TikTok but his stay will not be remembered fondly. Part of Mr Mayer’s brief from TikTok’s parent company ByteDance was to assuage US regulators’ concerns about the app’s Chinese roots. This has since blown up in spectacular fashion. Assurances about server locations and Cayman Islands incorporation have not stopped TikTok from becoming a geopolitical punching bag.
This month President Donald Trump ordered a ban on the app if ByteDance did not sell its US assets to an American company within 90 days. Mr Mayer’s exit suggests TikTok knows its chances of fighting a sale have all but evaporated.