Tiktok goes to AI moderation with mass layoffs

The social media giant, Tiktok, made a major symbolic decision today by retaining hundreds of British and Asian moderators while trying to integrate artificial intelligence into more processes throughout the business.

The Chinese technology giant said that workers in the move will have priority to hiring if they meet the unpertified criteria. The company has not disclosed the exact number of dismissed people from its 2,500 in the United Kingdom, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The BBC reports that this decision was immediately encountered by criticisms of unions and online security defenders.

“(Tiktok is) putting the greed of companies on workers’ security and the public,” said John Chadfield, the head of national communications union technology (CWU).

“Tiktok workers have long been ringing the alarm on the real costs of reducing human moderation teams in favor of the alternatives of hastily developed,” Chadfield told WSJ.

Tiktok says that AI already cuts dangerous content

The union has also expressed its concern to the BBC that the AI ​​used may not be entirely ready to manage moderation safely, which makes it potentially dangerous for vulnerable users.

Tiktok rejected this feeling in a statement, saying that it used the “complete” AI to advance a security focused on user and human moderators.

“(Tiktok) continues a reorganization that we started last year to strengthen our global operating model for confidence and security, which includes the concentration of our operations in fewer places in the world,” he said.

Tiktok has spent several years studying and adopting AI in its main companies, he said, adding that it will use these tools “will maximize efficiency and speed” during the moderation of its social media platform.

Tiktok is already on the radar of regulators abroad

Tiktok has already made a meticulous examination in the United Kingdom for its safety and compilation of personal user information. The office of the Federal Information Commissioner launched an investigation in March on the way the company uses data from 13 to 17 years old.

The company also underlined the new UK’s regulations in its declaration, of laws which increased the potential fines of non-compliance to national security standards up to 10%. Tiktok says he now needs more AI to respond to the new regulatory bar established by the UK online security law, which made its debut in July.

Tiktok says that its AI automatically removes approximately 85% of the positions that do not comply. He did not provide evidence to confirm this assertion.