KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 11): TikTok, a short-form video social media app, is laying off several hundred people globally, including a large number of employees in Malaysia.

It is understood that the Malaysians affected by the layoffs are mostly in content moderation, amid a shift to automation by the firm owned by China-headquartered internet company ByteDance Ltd.

"We are making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation,” a spokesperson for TikTok told The Edge through an external public relations firm.

Some 80% of the violative contents "are now removed by automated technologies”, the spokesperson said, reiterating TikTok’s pledge to invest US$2 billion (RM8.57 billion) globally in trust and safety this year.

The company, however, did not confirm the number of employees being laid off in Malaysia. 

The planned layoffs come at a time of broader restructuring efforts at parent company ByteDance as reported by multiple global news outlets.

ByteDance — which has dual headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, and offices in New York, London, Tokyo and Indonesia — is facing regulatory troubles in the US and Europe.

The company, one of the world’s largest unicorns, also owns apps like TikTok-equivalent Douyin in China and highly popular video-editing CapCut, as well as video games, virtual reality software, and artificial intelligence model.

Bloomberg reported in June that ByteDance was slashing some 450 jobs in Indonesia, following the merger of TikTok Shop with Tokopedia. The Information reported earlier in May that TikTok had planned mass job cuts at its global user operations, content, and marketing teams.

In November 2023, Reuters reported that ByteDance would shut its Nuverse gaming business, while the South China Morning Post reported that the virtual reality headset subsidiary Pico will be restructured.