The Chinese owner of TikTok is extending the use of artificial intelligence to identify and block harmful content, putting hundreds of British jobs at risk and raising fresh concerns over user safety.
An email sent to employees on Friday said that the viral video-sharing app was considering halting moderation and quality assurance work in London and “concentrating operations in fewer locations”. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, told staff it was launching a consultation process that could lead to several hundred job losses in the UK and southeast Asia.
It said “the proposed changes are intended to concentrate operation expertise in specific locations” and added that “technological advances, such as the enhancement of large language models, are reshaping our approach”.
Work will move to other sites in Europe or be taken on by third-party providers. Some trust and safety jobs will remain in the UK and TikTok said that it remained on course to increase the overall number of workers based in Britain from its present level of about 2,500 this year.
AI is already used for content moderation in the business and more than 85 per cent of the content that is removed from TikTok is done so through an automated process. The company claims that 99 per cent of that content is proactively removed before it is reported and that AI also cuts the need for humans to view distressing content.
The timing of the move nevertheless came as a surprise to industry-watchers: the UK’s Online Safety Act, which imposes stringent rules on social media platforms, came into force last month.
The legislation imposes a statutory duty of care on online platforms to protect users, particularly children, from illegal or harmful content, requiring measures such as age verification, content moderation and risk assessments, with Ofcom able to impose fines of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of global turnover.
About 300 people work in TikTok’s trust and safety department in London
CFOTO/FUTURE PUBLISHING VIA GETTY IMAGES
A spokesman for TikTok said the reorganisation was a continuation of one started last year “to strengthen our global operating model for trust and safety, which includes concentrating our operations in fewer locations globally to ensure that we maximise effectiveness and speed as we evolve this critical function for the company with the benefit of technological advancements”.
The cuts are at odds with TikTok’s latest accounts filed with Companies House for the year to December 2024, including the UK, Europe and Africa. They show revenue grew by 38 per cent to $6.3 billion, driven by a growing user base and better tools which have improved advertisers’ experience.
The Communication Workers Union said there were about 300 people working in the company’s trust and safety department in London, paid between £26,000 and £32,000 a year, and that the majority would be affected.
John Chadfield, of the CWU, said: “TikTok workers have long been sounding the alarm over the real-world costs of cutting human moderation teams in favour of hastily developed, immature AI alternatives. This news will put TikTok’s millions of British users at risk.”
TikTok’s UK head office is in Farringdon in central London and it is set to open an office in Barbican in the capital early next year. The company has been making layoffs within its trust and safety teams around the world, including in its German head office in Berlin.