TikTok to Lay Off Content Moderators and Adopt AI-Powered Solutions

TikTok reportedly plans to lay off hundreds of staffers in its trust and safety department as it reorganizes its content moderation efforts and automates more of that work with artificial intelligence.

The social media platform is set to lay off content moderation and security staff in London, south Asia and southeast Asia, the Financial Times (FT) reported Friday (Aug. 22), citing an internal email sent to TikTok’s trust and safety department staff.

TikTok did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

According to the FT report, the company said in the email that the changes in staffing “are intended to concentrate operation expertise in specific locations” and that “technological advances, such as the enhancement of large language models, are reshaping our approach.”

TikTok announced earlier this month that it is shutting down its trust and safety operation in Berlin, the report said.

The report of the latest layoffs came a week before the company’s staff in London were set to vote on unionization, according to the report.

It also came weeks after the implementation of parts of the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act, which requires tech companies to quickly remove dangerous and illegal content from their platforms, per the report.

It was reported in July 2023 that the European Union’s governing body conducted a stress test at TikTok’s Dublin offices and found that the company was not yet compliant with the moderation protocols in the EU’s Digital Services Act, which had not yet been implemented.

However, an EU commissioner commended the company for its voluntary agreement to undergo the test and commit resources to ensuring compliance.

In March 2024, on-demand ordering and delivery platform DoorDashsaid it added an AI feature designed to detect and prevent verbal abuse or harassment on its platform. The company said this SafeChat+ feature is meant to protect both customers and delivery drivers.

Social media platform X said in January 2024 that it was adding 100 content moderators to police child abuse content.

When AI startup OpenAI launched its large language model GPT-4 in August 2023, the company suggested that it could be used to develop AI-assisted content moderation systems that would reduce the need for human intervention.