TikTok Replaces Content Moderation Staff With AI Amid Meta Struggles

Moderating accounts and content on social media sites and digital platforms has always been a sensitive but crucial process, especially considering how unregulated or unfiltered content can end up becoming harmful to consumers.

This became an issue that became a pain point for popular social media platform TikTok when it got pulled up by over a dozen state Attorney Generals for allegedly harming the mental health of children, as well as causing them to become addicted to such platforms and more concerns.

While the platform does maintain a robust check for content being shared on its platform, the virality of some videos can result in large groups of people ingesting harmful content.

Of course, the platform’s moderators will step in once enough reports are received for harmful content. However, in the meantime, the video could have circulated to a large number of people.

On the other end of the spectrum is Meta, which recently got the bitter end of moderation efforts on its Threads platform. This was because the social networking giant seemed to be over-moderating its platforms.

Meta allegedly permanently disabled a user for being under 13 years old, when the user was well above that age. Even after providing sufficient and official proof of age that would dismiss the accusation, Meta remained adamant that the user was below the age of 13.

The move sparked an interesting marketing opportunity for Bluesky to point it that its moderation was on point – a move it chose to take on Meta’s Threads.

Suffice it to say, moderation is vital for social media platforms but must be handled with caution.

This is why TikTok is turning its attention to artificial intelligence (AI) to boost its moderation efforts – a move that comes with a catch.

TikTok’s AI Moderation Move

The company isn’t simply adding AI technology to its operations, it’s replacing hundreds of its global staff members in the bargain.

What was initially rumored to be more than 700 employees in Malaysia alone, was clarified by the company to be less than 500.

“We're making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement.

As per employees, staff members who were laid off were told by email on Wednesday.

TikTok isn’t a stranger to AI technology in this regard, as it was already being used to scan uploaded videos for potential violence, nudity or policy-violating content. In case users felt their posts didn’t violate the rules, they could appeal, at which point a human moderator would assess the video and decide its fate.

It’s believed that AI handled around 80% of the moderation tasks.

Yet, it’s a tough job being a TikTok moderator.

Not Easy Being A TikTok Moderator

A 2022 report found that TikTok's human moderators are made to sift through extremely graphic content to review them.

This includes videos spanning murder, suicide, pedophilia, pornographic content, accidents, child sexual abuse and cannibalism.

Moreover, these moderators were only paid around $1.80 an hour or $10 a day and were surveilled to ensure that they hit their minimum target of videos reviewed per month.

As per one moderator, the target was 900 videos per day and watching only 700 was considered “work avoidance.” Furthermore, if they didn’t hit their targets, they could lose up to a quarter of their salary as deducted bonus pay.

Some moderators even felt any psychological support from the company was just for show. Here, AI moderators could help reduce the psychological impact of such graphic content on human moderators.

What do you think of TikTok replacing its human moderators in favor of AI?

Do you think this move will help them streamline their moderation processes or the platform will end up facing backlash for its move like how Meta did?

Let us know in the comments below!