Social network TikTok announced on Friday the elimination of hundreds of jobs worldwide, particularly in Malaysia, redirecting resources towards automated solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI) to moderate its content.
That platform, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, however, did not provide details on planned layoffs by country.
The spokesperson explained that this is in support of TikTok’s efforts towards better moderation of the content published on the Internet, relying in particular on “automated” solutions.
According to this source, at least around 500 positions are potentially affected in Malaysia.
On its site, in a November 2023 note, TikTok said it had “thousands of employees” on “six continents” without further details.
“We plan to invest two billion dollars (1.8 billion euros) globally in trust and security in 2024 alone, and we continue to improve the effectiveness of our efforts. About 80 percent of content that violates the rules is now deleted by automated technologies,” added the same spokesperson in a short statement.
The short video platform uses a combination of human moderators and automated detection tools to analyze user-posted content and remove it if necessary.
These announcements come as the tech giants face tougher regulations in Malaysia.
The Malaysian government is asking social networks to obtain a license to operate, with the aim of fighting against growing cybercrime.