Social media platform TikTok is shedding tons of of workers from its international workforce, together with numerous workers in Malaysia, the corporate mentioned on Friday, because it shifts focus in the direction of a larger use of AI in content material moderation.
Two sources conversant in the matter earlier advised Reuters that greater than 700 jobs had been slashed in Malaysia. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, later clarified that lower than 500 workers within the nation had been affected.
The staff, most of whom had been concerned within the agency’s content material moderation operations, had been knowledgeable of their dismissal by electronic mail late Wednesday, the sources mentioned, requesting anonymity as they weren’t approved to talk to media.
In response to Reuters’ queries, TikTok confirmed the layoffs and mentioned that a number of hundred workers had been anticipated to be impacted globally as a part of a wider plan to enhance its moderation operations.
TikTok employs a mixture of automated detection and human moderators to evaluate content material posted on the positioning. ByteDance has over 110,000 workers in additional than 200 cities globally, based on the corporate web site.
The expertise agency can be planning extra retrenchments subsequent month because it seems to consolidate a few of its regional operations, one of many sources mentioned.
“We’re making these modifications as a part of our ongoing efforts to additional strengthen our international working mannequin for content material moderation,” a TikTok spokesperson mentioned in a press release.
The corporate expects to take a position $2 billion globally in belief and security this yr and can proceed to enhance effectivity, with 80% of guidelines-violating content material now eliminated by automated applied sciences, the spokesperson mentioned.
The layoffs had been first reported by enterprise portal The Malaysian Reserve on Thursday.
The job cuts happen as international expertise companies face larger regulatory stress in Malaysia, the place the federal government has requested social media operators to use for an working licence by January as a part of an effort to fight cyber offences.
Malaysia reported a pointy improve in dangerous social media content material earlier this yr and urged companies, together with TikTok, to step up monitoring on their platforms.
