Former TikTok executive Katie Puris has filed a lawsuit against the popular social media platform, alleging gender and age discrimination during her tenure at the company. Puris, who served as a senior executive in marketing at TikTok starting in 2019, claims she faced unequal treatment as a woman and was ultimately forced out of the company in 2022.
According to the lawsuit filed in the Southern District Court of New York, Puris asserts that she experienced retaliation after raising concerns about the alleged discrimination and also claims that TikTok inadequately addressed her report of sexual harassment at a work event.
The complaint states that Puris was informed she was terminated for “performance reasons,” although TikTok has not provided further comment on the lawsuit. This legal action follows previous complaints of discrimination filed by two Black former US employees of TikTok, alleging racial discrimination and retaliation.
Before filing the lawsuit, Puris had lodged a charge of discrimination and retaliation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May 2023. She had worked in senior marketing roles at other tech giants like Facebook and Google before joining TikTok.
Puris alleges that she faced bias due to gender stereotypes and age, with senior leaders purportedly favoring younger, less experienced employees. Despite her track record of success, Puris claims she was treated differently because she did not conform to traditional gender norms expected by the company.
The lawsuit also highlights concerns raised by Puris about the extreme workload impacting her team’s mental health. Despite addressing these concerns with human resources, Puris asserts that she faced various forms of retaliation, including receiving poor performance reviews and having her team size reduced.
Additionally, Puris claims she was pressured by managers to give unjustifiably low performance ratings to certain employees to justify their terminations. Furthermore, she alleges that TikTok marginalized her and made significant decisions about her team without her input after she voiced her complaints.
During a work trip to the Cannes Lion event in June 2022, Puris says she was sexually harassed by an employee from one of TikTok’s business partners. Despite reporting the incident, Puris claims there was a delayed response from TikTok’s ethics team.
The lawsuit may intensify scrutiny over TikTok’s connections to its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. Puris alleges that despite leadership changes, control of a key department remained with ByteDance, raising concerns about China’s influence over the social media platform.
Puris is seeking unspecified financial damages in the lawsuit. The case underscores ongoing challenges faced by tech companies in addressing workplace discrimination and harassment allegations.
