Social media platform TikTok is shedding tons of of staff from its international workforce, together with numerous workers in Malaysia, the corporate stated on Friday, because it shifts focus in the direction of a higher use of AI in content material moderation.
Two sources conversant in the matter earlier instructed Reuters that greater than 700 jobs have been slashed in Malaysia. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, later clarified that lower than 500 staff within the nation have been affected.
The staff, most of whom have been concerned within the agency’s content material moderation operations, have been knowledgeable of their dismissal by e-mail late Wednesday, the sources stated, requesting anonymity as they weren’t licensed to talk to media.
In response to Reuters’ queries, TikTok confirmed the layoffs and stated that a number of hundred staff have 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 evaluation content material posted on the positioning.
ByteDance has over 110,000 staff in additional than 200 cities globally, in line with the corporate web site.
The know-how agency can also be planning extra retrenchments subsequent month because it seems to be to consolidate a few of its regional operations, one of many sources stated.
“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 stated in a press release.
The corporate expects to speculate $2 billion (roughly Rs. 16,812 crore) globally in belief and security this 12 months and can proceed to enhance effectivity, with 80 p.c of guidelines-violating content material now eliminated by automated applied sciences, the spokesperson stated.
The layoffs have been first reported by enterprise portal The Malaysian Reserve on Thursday.
The job cuts happen as international know-how companies face higher regulatory strain 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 enhance in dangerous social media content material earlier this 12 months and urged companies, together with TikTok, to step up monitoring on their platforms.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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