Yesterday (Thursday, 10th October), two anonymous netizens submitted a confession to Twitter user @/meinmokhtar via NGL link, claiming that the company they work for would be laying off 700 staff. Since then, netizens have begun speculating about which company it might be and the possible reasons for such significant layoffs.
Some have speculated that it could be TikTok, or rather its parent company ByteDance, suggesting that they might be replacing human workers with AI technology. Earlier today, it has now been confirmed that the rumours are true. Here’s what happened:
According to several Twitter posts, employees—specifically content moderators—received an email on Wednesday (9th October) informing them of their layoffs, leaving them little time to secure new employment. Several reports have confirmed that TikTok is indeed implementing these layoffs as part of a global workforce reduction. A spokesperson for the video-sharing platform disclosed that the company intends to allocate funds globally to trust and safety initiatives in 2024, effectively shifting its focus towards greater use of AI in content moderation.
“We are making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation. We expect to invest US$2 billion (RM8.4 billion) globally in trust and safety in 2024 alone and are continuing to improve the efficacy of our efforts, with 80 per cent of violative content now removed by automated technologies,” they told Business Times. Previously, the app relied on both AI and human moderators in content moderation with the former “learning” from the latter on which content posted by users should be removed.
The company did not disclose the exact number of employees who have been laid off in Malaysia but acknowledged that a few hundred will be affected. Regardless, it is clear now that the technology no longer needs human companions for supervision. After the news broke out, netizens expressed sympathy to the affected now-former workers and expressed concerns over their jobs being taken over by AI one day. Others criticised TikTok for informing the staff practically last minute before they could find new jobs.
What do you think about the news?
