TikTok Cuts Hundreds of Jobs Due to Shift for AI Content Moderation, ByteDance, Facebook, Google

Hundreds of workers are being laid off at ByteDance, which runs the social media platform TikTok. This includes a large number of workers of this firm in Malaysia. It has increased the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in content moderation and hence has taken this step.

Two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that in Malaysia ByteDance More than 700 workers are being removed. However, ByteDance later clarified that less than 500 workers will be affected. Most of these workers were associated with content moderation of this firm. They have been informed about their termination through email. ByteDance confirmed the layoffs in response to questions from Reuters. It said hundreds of workers may be laid off to improve its moderation process. ByteDance has more than 1.10 lakh workers in more than 200 cities across multiple countries.

A few months ago, US presidential candidate Donald Trump had said that the short video app TikTok is a threat to national security. However, along with this he said that banning it will shock some children and it will benefit Meta’s social media platform Facebook.

TikTok is used by approximately 17 crore people in America. Earlier, Trump had criticized Facebook and Instagram for removing his posts during the riots in America three years ago. However, Trump’s social media accounts were restored last year. Due to the risk to the country’s security, the central government had banned about 60 apps related to China three years ago. These apps included TikTok. Before the ban, TikTok was estimated to have around 200 million users in the country. TikTok has also been accused of promoting wrong content. Due to its association with China, TikTok is facing difficulties in many countries. Earlier it was banned for government employees in America. This app is very popular in many countries.

(This news has not been edited by NDTV team. It is published directly from the syndicate feed.)