Layoffs come as social media giant lets AI take over content moderation tasks
TikTok Malaysia has laid off 481 employees as part of a global workforce reduction, according to reports.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil told reporters during the weekend that the social media platform laid off staff in its content moderation team.
"The team size reduction affected those doing manual moderation, as repetitive and manual duties are increasingly handled by AI," the minister said as quoted by Bernama.
Despite this, the company continues to employ approximately 3,700 people in the country and maintains a moderation team.
"In fact, TikTok plans to open several new positions and increase the number of employees due to the introduction of new services, including cloud computing and data centres," the minister said.
TikTok previously said in a statement that the layoffs are part of the organisation's efforts to improve efficiency.
"We're making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation," TikTok said in a statement quoted by Reuters.
"We expect to invest US$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."
According to Fahmi, TikTok remains committed to its partnerships with Malaysian authorities, particularly in areas such as content research and the screening of live sessions.
"They are working on increasing the number of manual moderators, and I have also requested improvements in content monitoring protocols, especially for TikTok live sessions occurring late at night."
ByteDance has over 110,000 employees in more than 200 cities across the world, according to the company website. In May, it said it has more than 40,000 people working as content moderators across the globe.
A ByteDance employee, who spoke to Benar News anonymously, said the company has been training AI systems to take over content moderation tasks "for a while now."
"We used to tag videos that violated content policies, and the AI would learn from that," the employee told the news outlet. "Now they've decided AI can handle it better – both cost-wise and in terms of efficiency."
Affected employees told news outlets that they were notified of their dismissal on Wednesday, with those impacted to receive compensation based on years of service.
"They said they will minimise staff, and most tasks will now be outsourced to external partners," an affected employee told Benar News. "It's not about performance – even team leaders were hit."
The news of the layoffs comes amid mounting job security fears among the workforce due to AI.
In Malaysia, former Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar previously underscored the need to retain 50% of the country's workforce following warnings that 4.5 million Malaysians could lose their jobs in the wake of AI.
