UK MPs urged to investigate TikTok’s plans to cut 439 content moderator jobs | TikTok

Unions and online safety experts have called on MPs to investigate TikTok’s plans to make hundreds of jobs redundant for UK-based content moderators.

The video app company plans to cut 439 jobs in its trust and safety team in London, prompting warnings that the job losses will have negative impacts on online security.

The Trades Union Congress, the Communications Workers Union and leading figures in online security have signed an open letter to Chi Onwurah MP, Labor chairman of the science, innovation and technology committee, calling for the proposals to be investigated.

The letter warns that outages could expose children to harmful content, citing estimates by the UK’s data watchdog that up to 1.4 million TikTok users are under 13. TikTok has more than 30 million users in the UK.

“These security-critical employees are on the front lines of protecting users and communities from deepfakes, toxicity, and exploitation,” the letter said.

He also claims that TikTok plans to replace moderators with AI-powered systems and workers in countries such as Kenya and the Philippines.

The signatories also accuse Chinese-owned TikTok of union-busting by announcing the layoffs eight days before workers were to vote on union recognition at the CWU’s tech branch.

“There is no business case for these layoffs. TikTok’s revenues are growing rapidly – up 40% Only for the UK and Europe,” the letter said. “Yet the company decided to cut corners. “We believe this decision is an act of union busting at the expense of workers’ rights, user safety and the integrity of online information.”

The letter was also signed by Ian Russell, father of British teenager Molly Russell, who committed suicide after viewing harmful content online, Meta whistleblower Arturo Bejar and Sonia Livingstone, professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics.

It asks the committee to examine the implications of the layoffs for online safety and workers’ rights, and what legal steps can be taken to prevent content moderation from being shifted to other countries or human moderators being replaced by artificial intelligence.

Asked to comment on the letter, Onwurah said the layoff plans indicate TikTok’s commitment to content moderation is being reviewed; This is “a matter of serious concern given the clear role that recommendation algorithms used by TikTok and other platforms play in exposing users to large amounts of harmful and misleading content.”

Onwurah said the planned layoffs were spurred by TikTok’s recent appearance before its committee, where the company outlined its commitment to keeping the platform safe in terms of financial investment and staff.

He said: “TikTok has informed the committee of its commitment to maintaining the highest standards in protecting both its users and employees. How does this announcement align with that commitment?”

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We strongly deny these allegations. We are continuing a restructuring we initiated last year to strengthen our global operating model for Trust and Safety, including concentrating our operations in fewer locations around the world, ensuring we maximize efficiency and speed as we enhance this critical function for the company by leveraging technological advances.”

According to TikTok, the company is working with the CWU on a voluntary basis and has offered to continue negotiations with the union after the current layoff discussion is completed.