TikTok, a video-focused social media (SNS) platform that is set to sell its U.S. business rights, has hired a government relations executive who previously worked at Boeing.
Reuters reported on the 25th (local time) that TikTok appointed Ziad Ojakli, a former Boeing government relations executive, as head of public policy for the Americas. Ojakli also handled government relations at Ford and SoftBank and worked at the White House during President George W. Bush's term.
Ojakli will start on the 1st of next month, and predecessor Michael Beckerman, whose departure was signaled in April, will move to a global advisory role.
TikTok Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shou Chew said, "Ziad will advance our mission to be a trusted platform through proactive engagement, education and transparency." On Beckerman, he said he was a "key figure" who fought against the U.S. government's ban.
TikTok's replacement of the executive in charge of government relations is seen as a move prompted by the looming deadline to sell its U.S. business rights. The U.S. Congress last year enacted the so-called "TikTok ban law," stipulating that if ByteDance Ltd., TikTok's parent company, does not transfer TikTok's U.S. business rights to U.S. corporations, the service will be banned.
TikTok at the time filed a constitutional challenge, but the U.S. Supreme Court in January upheld the law.
President Donald Trump said in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping in September that they had agreed on the sale of TikTok's U.S. business rights, and signed an executive order allowing U.S. investors to acquire those rights. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted that the value of TikTok's U.S. unit is estimated at about $14 billion (about 20 trillion won).
Minister Bessent told the press after the U.S.-China summit at the end of last month that "we finalized the TikTok agreement in the sense that it will receive approval from the Chinese government," adding that the sale process would proceed "in a few weeks or months."
Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake are said to be acquiring about 50% of TikTok's U.S. equity. TikTok is highly popular in the United States, with more than 170 million American users, but concerns have persisted that, because it is a subsidiary of a Chinese company, personal data could be transferred to China or exploited for hacking.