TikTok increasingly moving towards replacing content moderators with AI models worldwide

TikTok employees in Germany have gathered for renewed strikes in protest over mass layoffs within the company’s trust and safety team. The social media giant announced plans to disband its entire Berlin moderation unit — responsible for removing harmful content — and shift the work to artificial intelligence and external contractors, a decision that is part of a wider strategy the company has been applying across offices worldwide.

The move will cut 150 jobs, as reported by German media outlets, with the trade union representing the staff pressing TikTok for talks in recent weeks.

Kalle Kunkel, ver.di’s spokesperson for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, said the union sent the company a list of demands, including extended notice periods of up to one year and severance for affected employees. So far, TikTok has refused to engage.

“Basically, they told us: ‘We don’t want to talk to you,’” Kunkel said. “After that, we went on two strikes — but there’s still no response.”

The Berlin moderation team serves the German-speaking market of roughly 32 million active users. While TikTok has several offices in Germany, the capital is its largest hub with around 400 employees. Cutting the trust and safety staff there would mean almost a 40% reduction in its local workforce.

TikTok spokesperson Anna Sopel said the proposed cuts are designed to “streamline workflows and improve efficiency” and stressed that “we remain fully committed to protecting the safety and integrity of our platform.”

Germany’s trust and safety team, like others worldwide, is tasked with ensuring videos do not violate company rules or contain harmful content, such as violence, pornography, misinformation, or hate speech. According to the union, each moderator reviews up to 1,000 videos daily, often working alongside AI tools.

Wider trend seen across different markets

Over the past year, TikTok has been downsizing its trust and safety operations globally, increasingly replacing human moderators with automated systems. In September, the company dismissed its entire 300-person content moderation team in the Netherlands. The following month, it announced plans to replace around 500 moderators in Malaysia with AI-powered systems. In February, Reuters reported that significant portions of trust and safety staff across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa were being cut.

The layoffs in Germany follow TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s 2024 testimony before the US Congress, where he pledged to increase investment in trust and safety. At the time, he committed more than $2 billion to support a global team of over 40,000 people.

By Nazrin Sadigova