KUALA LUMPUR: TikTok is laying off hundreds of employees from its global workforce, including a significant number in Malaysia, as the company shifts its focus toward increased use of AI in content moderation. On Friday, TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, confirmed that less than 500 employees in Malaysia were released.
The affected employees, primarily involved in content moderation, were notified of their dismissals via email late Wednesday. Local media quoting sources familiar with the matter, reported that the layoffs are part of a broader strategy to enhance TikTok’s moderation operations.
In response to inquiries from Reuters, TikTok acknowledged the layoffs and noted that several hundred employees would be impacted globally as part of efforts to improve content moderation. The platform employs a combination of automated detection and human moderators to review the content shared on its site.
According to the company’s website, ByteDance employs over 110,000 people across more than 200 cities worldwide. Additionally, TikTok plans further retrenchments next month as it consolidates some regional operations, according to one source.
“We’re making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen our global operating model for content moderation,” a TikTok spokesperson stated. The company plans to invest $2 billion globally in trust and safety this year and aims to enhance efficiency, with 80% of content violating guidelines currently removed by automated technologies.
The layoffs were initially reported by The Malaysian Reserve on Thursday and come amid increasing regulatory pressure on global tech firms in Malaysia, where the government has mandated that social media operators apply for operating licenses by January to combat cyber offenses.
