TikTok moderators are warning that young people in the UK may be exposed to more harmful content after hundreds of moderator redundancies were announced in the company’s London office.
“If you speak to most moderators, we wouldn’t let our children on the app,” said one moderator, who asked to remain anonymous. He spoke to Sky News at a protest outside the company’s UK headquarters.
He is worried the job cuts could lead to worse moderation of harmful TikTok content and accused the company of union-busting.
The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) said TikTok was around a week away from a vote that would give the moderators union recognition when the redundancies were announced.
“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 national officer for tech workers at the CWU.
“We’ve got people that are working on a frontline public service, keeping families safe, that now might be without a job.”
However, TikTok told Sky News they “strongly reject these claims”.
According to the company, the global decisions around redundancy are not related to discussions with the trade union, which TikTok has been engaging with voluntarily, despite having no requirement to do so.
The company has offered to continue discussions with them once the current collective consultation has concluded, according to TikTok.
“We are continuing a reorganisation that we started last year to strengthen our global operating model for Trust and Safety, including concentrating our operations in fewer locations globally, ensuring we maximize effectiveness and speed as we evolve this critical function for the company with the benefit of technological advancements,” said a TikTok spokesperson.
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But the CWU and TikTok moderators told Sky News they don’t think that is true.
“We think this is a sham redundancy,” said Mr Chadfield.
“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.”
The protest also follows similar demonstrations in Berlin, where hundreds of moderators are reportedly facing redundancy.
There are also reports of redundancies in the company’s Dublin moderation office.
Thursday’s protest came a day before US TikTok users were due to find out what would happen to the app in the States.
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President Trump will speak to Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday to finalise a deal that could see TikTok in the US separated from parent company ByteDance over security concerns.
