TikTok plans to lay off 'large proportion' of its 1,000 global workers today weeks after Biden signed law to ban the social media platform unless China's ByteDance sells it to a US-based company

TikTok will begin laying of a 'large percentage' of its global 1,000-man workforce today, it has emerged.

The firm, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, will be axing staffers in its global user operations, content and marketing teams, current employees have told The Information.

The precise number of layoffs is unknown, but insiders claim TikTok is completely disbanding its global operations team, which deals with user support and communications.  

Such a large-scale layoff is unusual for ByteDance, which experts claim typically makes cost-cutting measures in smaller stages.

TikTok's alleged downsizing comes just weeks after President Joe Biden signed a law banning the platform in the US unless it is sold to an American company.

TikTok will begin laying of a 'large percentage' of its global 1,000-man workforce today, it has emerged. Current employees allege the firm will be sending layoff notifications to an unspecified number of staffers late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. Pictured: TikTok Headquarters in Singapore

Current employees told the news outlet that TikTok would be sending layoff notifications to an unspecified number of staffers late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

The sources also claimed the global user operations team will be scrapped.  

Members of that team who are not laid off will be reassigned to other departments, such as trust and safety, marketing, content and product.

TikTok already cut dozens of employees at the start of the year, but is understood to 'rarely' carry out large-scale layoffs that have become more common at other tech companies.

It comes as Biden last month signed a law that gives ByteDance until January 19 to sell TikTok, which used by 170 million Americans, to a US-based company or face a ban. 

The law prohibits app stores like Apple, and Alphabet's Google, from offering TikTok and bars internet hosting services from supporting the short video app unless ByteDance divests TikTok.

The White House has said it wants to see Chinese-based ownership ended on national security grounds but not a ban on TikTok.

TikTok's alleged downsizing comes just weeks after President Joe Biden (pictured yesterday) signed a law banning the platform in the US unless it is sold to an American company

A group of TikTok creators last week said they filed a lawsuit in US federal court seeking to block the proposed law.

'Although they come from different places, professions, walks of life, and political persuasions, they are united in their view that TikTok provides them a unique and irreplaceable means to express themselves and form community,' said the lawsuit.

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, a law firm representing the creators, provided a copy of the lawsuit to Reuters it said had been filed in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The suit, which seeks injunctive relief, says the law threatens free speech and 'promises to shutter a discrete medium of communication that has become part of American life.'

ByteDance filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month, arguing that the law violates the US Constitution on a number of grounds including running afoul of First Amendment free speech protections.

TikTok creators filed a similar suit in 2020 to block a prior attempt to block the app, and also sued last year in Montana asking a court to block a state ban.