Key Points
- ByteDance lays off over 700 Malaysian employees, mainly in content moderation.
- The company plans additional layoffs and operational consolidations.
- Malaysia pressures social media firms to enhance content monitoring amid rising harmful content.
- ByteDance to invest $2 billion globally in trust and safety efforts this year.
China’s ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has laid off more than 700 employees from its Malaysian operations as part of a strategic shift toward greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) in content moderation. Most of the affected employees were involved in manual content moderation, with layoffs communicated via email late Wednesday, according to sources who spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to address the media.
TikTok confirmed the layoffs on Friday but did not provide an exact figure on how many employees were let go in Malaysia. However, the company acknowledged that the layoffs are part of a broader global restructuring of its moderation operations. Hundreds of employees worldwide are expected to be impacted as TikTok enhances its focus on automation in reviewing user content.
According to its website, ByteDance employs over 110,000 people in more than 200 cities globally. Despite this large workforce, the company is planning additional layoffs next month as it consolidates its regional operations, according to one of the sources.
A TikTok spokesperson stated, “We’re making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation.” The company anticipates investing $2 billion globally to enhance its trust and safety initiatives this year. The spokesperson added that TikTok’s AI systems now remove 80% of guideline-violating content, significantly reducing the need for human moderators.
The Malaysian business portal first reported the job cuts at The Malaysian Reserve on Thursday. These layoffs come when global tech companies, including TikTok, are under increasing regulatory pressure in Malaysia. Earlier this year, the Malaysian government announced that social media operators would be required to apply for operating licenses by January 2025, part of a wider effort to combat cyber offenses. Malaysia has also reported a sharp rise in harmful social media content, urging platforms to bolster their content monitoring efforts.
This latest round of layoffs illustrates ByteDance’s move to streamline operations and rely more heavily on AI for content moderation, a shift driven by technological advancements and regulatory scrutiny across multiple markets.
