TikTok users face more harmful content risk, laid off moderators raise red flags

TikTok moderators in the UK have warned that younger users could soon be more vulnerable to harmful content after the platform told hundreds of staff that their jobs were being axed.

This comes as several moderators gathered outside the social media platform’s London headquarters to protest their concerns that the loss of many experienced staff will leave the platform’s safety measures severely weakened.

TikTok redundancies arrive just before union vote

Last month, TikTok said it was making this decision “to concentrate operations in fewer locations” as well as develop use of AI moderation, partly to protect human workers from seeing harmful content.

“If you speak to most moderators, we wouldn’t let our children on the app,” said one protester, who asked not to be named. He said the cuts risked undoing years of careful monitoring work and accused TikTok of deliberately undermining attempts to unionize its staff.

The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), which represents tech employees, said the timing of the redundancies was far from coincidental.

“TikTok, at a very coincidental time when there was about to be a union recognition ballot, pulled the ballot and announced these job cuts,” said John Chadfield, the CWU’s national officer for technology workers.

He warned that the redundancies could strip away an essential public service.

“We have got people that are working on a frontline public service, keeping families safe, that now might be without a job.”

Chadfield.

TikTok, according to the CWU, made the move just as its workers were a week away from voting to unionize.

However, TikTok says the claims by workers and unions are misleading as the company is just executing its broader reorganization.

In a statement to Sky News, TikTok said it “strongly reject[s] these claims” and stressed that redundancies were “not related to discussions with the trade union,” with which the company said it had engaged voluntarily.

Executives described the restructuring as a continuation of work that began last year designed to streamline TikTok’s global Trust and Safety division.

TikTok said it continues to be open to the idea of dialogue with the CWU after consultations are done.

London protests mirror continent-wide action

Despite the claims of committing to dialogue, union leaders and moderators remain unconvinced by the company’s efforts.

“We think this is a sham redundancy,” Mr Chadfield said. “They are simply offshoring these jobs to pay less elsewhere and actually putting users of the platform at risk, because the people that are moving these jobs to a third-party company, they would be brand new to it, not having the years of experience that these types of moderators have.”

Moderators argue that experience gained through years of exposure to troubling and harmful content cannot be erased, and outsourcing to cheaper workers will leave gaps in judgment and context. This might in turn allow more disturbing or dangerous material to be pushed to consumers.

The demonstrations in London follow similar protests held in Berlin, where hundreds of moderators are also facing redundancy. In Dublin, there are also reports of job cuts at the company’s offices, suggesting a Europe-wide restructuring.

The CWU opines TikTok’s decision shows the company’s broader push towards AI moderation, something that the company admitted, arguing this is partly to shield humans from harmful content.

Yet critics fear that, while technology can filter out much content, it is no replacement for the lived judgement of trained moderators who can pick up on context, tone and nuance.

Thursday’s London protest came on the eve of a crucial moment for TikTok in the United States as US users wait anxiously to see if TikTok will be forced to split from its Chinese parent company ByteDance over intensifying national security concerns.

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