TikTok accused of ‘sacrificing online safety’ amid AI-driven job cuts
Unions and campaigners have called on MPs to urgently review TikTok’s plans to cut hundreds of jobs in the UK amid growing fears about online security.
Organizers said the outages, which would greatly reduce the platform’s trust and security team in the country, risked exposing users to harmful online content, including deepfakes and abuse.
An open letter to MP Chi Onwurah, chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, campaigners and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Communications Workers Union (CWU) said the government must “take immediate action” to investigate concerns about online safety and workers’ rights in the UK.
This comes after ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based owner, announced in August that 400 staff in its London office would be laid off, with their roles reallocated to offices across Europe and outsourced to third-party providers.
ByteDance denied that online security had lost its priority, and the decision was linked to plans to increase the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in content moderation, aiming to “maximize effectiveness and speed”.
But workers and unions criticized the move, which they said would put the app’s up to 30 million users in the UK at risk of being exposed to harmful content, including posts about eating disorders, self-harm and suicide.
To talk IndependentCWU national officer John Chadfield called on TikTok to “devote time and resources” to content moderation.
“Current strategy priorities around TikTok Shop monetization and recruiting influencers do not mean security can take a backseat,” he said. “TikTok may talk a good game about Trust and Safety from time to time and fly in tech journalists to showcase some marketing, but they know the internal reality doesn’t match their PR.
“If TikTok took online security seriously, rather than a short-sighted outsourcing move that endangered its largest user base in Europe, it should actually invest the time and resources to understand the expertise and processes required to effectively manage the millions of dangerous content that floods the platform, and in the process, acknowledge and recognize the frontline professionals already working in Trust and Security.”
Union leaders and campaigners who signed the letter include Ian Russell, father of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who a coroner ruled died from an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the “adverse effects of online content”, and Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
“Each redundancy targets the ‘Trust and Safety Team’ and effectively ends content moderation in London; similar cuts to human moderation are occurring around the world,” the letter to Mr Onwurah says.
“These security-critical employees are on the front lines of protecting users and communities from deepfakes, poison, and exploitation.”
Unions also accused TikTok of “union busting” after the layoffs were announced just eight days before workers were scheduled to vote on union recognition with United Tech and Allied Workers, the technology-focused arm of the Communications Workers Union. TikTok said its decision was global and unrelated to talks with the union.
The restructuring plans come shortly after the UK’s Online Safety Act, enforced by Ofcom, came into force in July. New legislation requires online platforms to protect UK audiences from illegal material such as child sexual abuse and extreme pornography.
Platforms also need to prevent children from accessing content that is harmful and inappropriate for their age.
A TikTok spokesperson said it “strongly denies” allegations of prioritizing online safety and union-busting.
“We are continuing the 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 while enhancing this critical function for the company with the advantage of technological advances.” he added.
