TikTok workers in Germany have launched strikes in response to the company’s decision to lay off its entire Berlin trust and safety team of 150 employees.

The team, responsible for moderating harmful content for the German-speaking market, will see its work outsourced to AI and contract workers.

TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, has about 400 staff in Berlin, making the layoffs nearly 40% of its workforce in the city.

The union ver.di has demanded negotiations for severance and an extended notice period, but said TikTok has not agreed to talks.

TikTok said the layoffs aim to streamline operations and increase efficiency.

Recent years have seen the company cut moderation teams in other countries, including the Netherlands and Malaysia, as it moves to automated systems.

Other social media firms like Meta and X have also downsized human moderation roles in favor of AI.

Union representatives and policy analysts have raised concerns about the accuracy and safety of AI-powered moderation.

🔗 Source: The Guardian

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Tech platforms are systematically replacing human moderators with AI across the globe

TikTok’s Berlin layoffs represent part of a broader industry shift, with the company already eliminating 300 content moderators in the Netherlands and 500 in Malaysia over the past year 1.

This trend extends beyond TikTok to other major platforms. Meta planned to replace a significant portion of employees working on product reviews with AI, while industry-wide cuts have eliminated thousands of trust and safety positions across companies like Meta, X, and Google 2.

The scale suggests this isn’t a company-specific cost-cutting measure but a transformation in how social media platforms approach content moderation.

Companies frame these changes as efficiency improvements, and the timing across the industry suggests AI capabilities have reached a point where executives believe automated systems can handle much of the moderation work previously done by humans.

2️⃣ AI content moderation faces significant accuracy limitations despite widespread adoption

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