Social media platform TikTok said it will slash hundreds of jobs, with a significant number of employees in Malaysia expected to be affected, as the company shifts to AI-assisted content moderation. TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, said Friday it would cut several hundred jobs around the world, without providing a breakdown by country.
Less than 500 jobs in Malaysia are expected to be affected by the move. A TikTok spokesperson said that the job cuts were part of an effort to boost content moderation. “We expect to invest $2 billion globally in trust and safety in 2024 alone and are continuing to improve the efficacy of our efforts, with 80% of violative content now removed by automated technologies,” the spokesperson said in a brief statement.
Meanwhile, Communications Minister, Fahmi Fadzil said Tiktok’s move to reduce its employees will not affect its operations and the company is cooperating with the authorities in Malaysia, especially in the aspects of research and screening of content and live sessions. Fahmi said based on his meeting with TikTok Malaysia, the company informed that the number of workers in Malaysia is still high, at around 3,700 people, with layoffs involving 481 workers. “In fact, TikTok will open several new positions and increase the number of employees because there are several new services they will provide including cloud computing and data centres.
