TikTok's far-fetched plan to improve its content moderation processes using artificial intelligence (AI) includes hundreds of job losses worldwide, including a sizable number in Malaysia.
TikTok, owned by ByteDance in China, announced the layoffs on Friday in response to earlier rumours that over 700 positions had been eliminated in Malaysia. It has confirmed that the incident has only affected fewer than 500 workers nationwide. The majority of the layoffs are related to the company's content moderation teams, who received an email late last Wednesday informing them of their termination.
According to the article, TikTok's moderation strategy is being strengthened through a global restructuring that includes these layoffs. The action is indicative of the company's goal to increase the effectiveness of its content assessment process, combining AI tools with human moderators to monitor user-generated content.
"We are making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation," a TikTok employee is quoted in the newspaper as saying.
