ByteDance cuts over 700 jobs in Malaysia in shift towards AI moderation, sources say

KUALA LUMPUR — China's ByteDance, the parent of social media platform TikTok, has laid off more than 700 workers from its Malaysian unit as the company shifts focus towards greater use of AI in content moderation, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The employees, most of whom were involved in the firm's content moderation operations, were informed of their dismissal by email late Wednesday (Oct 9), the sources said, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to media.

In response to Reuters' queries, TikTok confirmed the layoffs on Friday, but said it was unable to give a precise figure on the number of employees affected in Malaysia.

It anticipates that several hundreds will be impacted globally as part of a wider plan to improve its moderation operations. TikTok employs a mix of automated detection and human moderators to review content posted on the site.

Bytedance has over 110,000 employees in more than 200 cities globally, according to the company website.

The technology firm 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.

The company expects to invest US$2 billion (S$2.61 billion) globally in trust and safety this year and will continue to improve efficiency, with 80 per cent of guideline-violating content now removed by automated technologies, the spokesperson said.

The layoffs were first reported by business portal The Malaysian Reserve on Thursday.

The job cuts occur as global tech firms face greater regulatory pressure in Malaysia, where the government has asked social media operators to apply for an operating licence by January as part of an effort to combat cyber offences.

Malaysia reported a sharp increase in harmful social media content earlier this year and urged firms, including TikTok, to step up monitoring on their platforms.

ALSO READ: Samsung's global layoff hits Singapore, staff across departments retrenched