KUALA LUMPUR – After letting go of 481 employees in Malaysia, ByteDance Ltd, TikTok’s parent company, will be introducing additional jobs in the future as they roll out new services, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
Speaking to reporters at the People’s Housing Project (PPR) homes in Kerinchi, Pantai Dalam, Fahmi refuted rumours circulating on social media that TikTok had retrenched over 700 employees from their moderation department, clarifying that the actual number is 481.
Fahmi added that he had been informed that this restructuring exercise is not exclusive to Malaysia but is also occurring in other countries where TikTok operates, as the company seeks to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their content moderation protocols.
“TikTok said they still maintain around a 3,700-strong workforce in Malaysia, so they have quite a significant of people employed in the country.
“They also said that they will introduce additional positions and employ workers because of the new services that they will provide.
“They will introduce a cloud computing and data centre,” Fahmi said.
However, the Lembah Pantai MP expressed concerns that TikTok’s restructuring exercise could have an effect on the content uploaded to their platform.
While AI could moderate English and Malay content, Fahmi told TikTok that uploads in Chinese dialects and Tamil may still need human moderators.
“I also told TikTok about my concerns about live content streams, which happen late at night.
“We have seen cyberbullying happen during TikTok Live sessions which happens sometimes at 1am or 3am, but the content moderation team are not operating.
“This is a gap and I am told they will improve on this,” Fahmi added.
Yesterday, TikTok confirmed that it performed a restructuring exercise in Malaysia which saw a reduction of employees in their moderation department.
The company said the move was done as part of its efforts to improve its global operating model for content moderation.
Reports of the layoffs in Malaysia first surfaced yesterday when a news portal revealed that TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, had terminated hundreds of employees.
This restructuring is not limited to Malaysia.
In May, CNN reported that TikTok had planned a significant reduction of its global workforce, particularly affecting operations and marketing teams.
By June, Bloomberg reported that ByteDance had laid off 450 employees in its Indonesian branch following the acquisition of a local e-commerce firm that was subsequently integrated into TikTok’s operations.
Despite these layoffs, ByteDance has continued to invest in Malaysia, announcing in June its intention to pour RM10 billion into the country to establish a regional hub for artificial intelligence. – October 12, 2024