Additional layoffs expected next month

TikTok has announced major layoffs, primarily targeting content moderation teams in Malaysia and other regions.

The company is reportedly moving towards AI-based content moderation to improve efficiency and meet growing regulatory requirements.

Sources with knowledge of the matter said Reuters that more than 700 jobs were lost in Malaysia, although TikTok later clarified that the figure was closer to 500.

Affected employees, most of whom were responsible for manually reviewing content, were informed of their impending dismissal via email.

TikTok currently uses a combination of automated detection systems and human moderators to review content on its platform.

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, employs more than 110,000 people worldwide.

A TikTok spokesperson said Reuters that the recent job cuts are part of “ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global content moderation operating model.”

Additional layoffs are expected next month, with several hundred employees likely to be affected worldwide.

This year, TikTok plans to invest $2 billion in trust and safety initiatives globally, with AI now responsible for removing 80% of content that violates the platform’s guidelines.

The latest wave of layoffs at TikTok follows a series of job cuts earlier this year.

In April, the company reduced its workforce in Ireland by more than 250 employees, and in May, reports emerged that around 1,000 employees from its operations and marketing teams had been made redundant.

Regulatory challenges

In recent years, TikTok has faced regulatory challenges in many countries.

In July, Ofcom, the UK’s broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, fined TikTok £1.875 million for providing inaccurate information about its parental controls safety feature.

TikTok has been asked to share details about the adoption of its ‘Family Pairing’ feature following a request made in summer 2023. Ofcom sought this data to assess how effectively TikTok’s controls protect adolescent users. The regulator also aimed to help parents make informed decisions regarding their children’s use of the platform.

While TikTok initially complied with the request in September 2023, it later retracted the information, prompting Ofcom to launch an investigation.

The investigation found major gaps in TikTok’s data governance processes, revealing that the company lacked appropriate controls to prevent the submission of inaccurate data and was slow to recognize and correct errors.

The Court of Justice of the EU in June upheld the European Commission’s decision to appoint ByteDance as a custodian under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The court rejected all arguments made by the company, affirming ByteDance’s obligations under the DMA to comply with stricter regulations aimed at promoting fair competition in digital markets.

Earlier this year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that could potentially lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok.

The legislation, aimed at protecting national security, gives ByteDance a six-month deadline to sell its majority stake in TikTok. Otherwise, the app would be banned nationwide.

Supporters of the bill argued that a platform as influential as TikTok, controlled by a company linked to the Chinese Communist Party, poses a serious risk to national security.

In response, TikTok sought to address these concerns by emphasizing its commitment to data security and privacy.