Social media platform TikTok is shedding lots of of staff from its international workforce, together with a lot of workers in Malaysia, the corporate stated on Friday, because it shifts focus in the direction of a larger use of AI in content material moderation.
Two sources aware of 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 staff 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 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 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 evaluation content material posted on the location.
ByteDance has over 110,000 staff in additional than 200 cities globally, in response to the corporate web site.
The expertise agency can be planning extra retrenchments subsequent month because it appears to be like to consolidate a few of its regional operations, one of many sources stated.
“We’re making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation,” a TikTok spokesperson stated in a press release.
The firm expects to speculate $2 billion (roughly Rs. 16,812 crore) globally in belief and security this yr 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 had been first reported by enterprise portal The Malaysian Reserve on Thursday.
The job cuts happen as international expertise companies face larger 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 yr and urged companies, together with TikTok, to step up monitoring on their platforms.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
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