Singapore – TikTok is laying off hundreds of employees globally, including a significant number in Malaysia, as it shifts towards increased use of AI for content moderation, the company announced on Friday.
Sources previously told Reuters that over 700 jobs were cut in Malaysia, though TikTok later clarified that fewer than 500 employees in the country were affected.
Most of the impacted employees worked in content moderation and were informed of their layoffs via email on Wednesday, according to anonymous sources who were not authorized to speak publicly.
In response to media inquiries, TikTok confirmed the global layoffs, stating that several hundred employees would be affected as part of a broader plan to enhance its moderation processes.
It is also planning more retrenchments next month as it looks to consolidate some of its regional operations, one of the sources said.
“We’re making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement.
TikTok combines both automated tools and human moderators to review content on its platform. Parent company ByteDance, which has more than 110,000 employees in over 200 cities worldwide, is reportedly planning further layoffs next month as it consolidates some regional operations, according to one of the sources.
