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Unions and campaigners have called on MPs to urgently review TikTok’s plans eliminate hundreds of jobs Amid growing apprehensions in Britain online security,
Organizers said the outage would have a huge impact on the platform’s trust and security team in the country, putting users at risk. harmful online content – Involved deepfake And abuse.
In an open letter to MP Chi Onwurah, chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, campaigners and members of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said the government must take “action now” to investigate concerns over UK online safety and workers’ rights.
This comes after TikTok’s Beijing-based owner ByteDance It was announced in August that 400 members of staff in its London office would be made redundant along with their roles. Reallocated to offices across Europe and outsourced to third-party providers.
ByteDance denied that it was de-prioritizing online security and said the decision was linked to plans to increase the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in content moderation, with the goal of “maximizing effectiveness and speed”.
But workers and unions criticized the move, saying the app’s 30 million users in the UK would be at greater risk of being exposed to harmful content, including eating disorders, self-harm and suicide posts.
talking to IndependentCWU national officer John Chadfield called on TikTok to “invest time and resources” in content moderation.
“Their current strategy of making money from the TikTok shop and engaging influencers are not their priorities, which means safety will take a back seat,” he said. “TikTok may sometimes tell a good game about trust and security, and will blow up tech journalists for some marketing parade, but they know the internal reality doesn’t match their own PR.
“If TikTok took online security seriously, instead of a short-sighted offshoring move that jeopardized their largest user base in Europe, they should actually invest time and resources in understanding the expertise and processes needed to effectively moderate the millions of pieces of dangerous content coming to the platform, and in that process already have existing frontline professionals confident in their work and safety, acknowledging and supporting their Should be appreciated.”
The group of union leaders and campaigners who are signatories to the letter include Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, whose 14-year-old was found by a coroner to have died by an act of suicide while suffering from depression and the “negative effects of online material”, and Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
“Each of the redundancies is targeted at the ‘Trust and Safety Team’, effectively ending content moderation in London – similar cuts to human moderation are taking place around the world,” the letter to Mr Onwurah said.
“These security-critical workers are the front line of protecting users and communities from deep fakes, toxicity, and abuse.”
Unions have also accused TikTok of “union busting”, as the redundancies were announced eight days before workers were to vote on union recognition with United Tech & Allied Workers, the tech-focused branch of the Communication Workers Union. TikTok said its decision was global and not related to discussions with the trade union.
The restructuring plans came to light shortly after the UK’s Online Safety Act came into force, enforced by Ofcom in July. The new law mandates online platforms to protect UK audiences from illegal content such as child sexual exploitation and extreme pornography.
Platforms are also required to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content.
A spokesperson for TikTok said it “strongly rejects” allegations of not 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 globally, ensuring we maximize effectiveness and speed as we grow this important function for the company with the benefit of technological advancements,” it added.