TikTok plans to lay off its entire content moderation team in the German capital, Berlin, replacing the 150 employees, including Dutch-speaking moderators, with artificial intelligence and subcontractors, VRT NWS reported on Saturday with confirmation from the German union Ver.di.
The Trust and Safety department in Berlin is responsible for the platform’s security, removing inappropriate videos involving violence, pornography, and fake news. Some content is removed, while other material receives warnings. The team consists of various nationalities to handle different languages, including Dutch. Ver.di, Germany’s second-largest union, confirmed that this department will soon be dismantled.
TikTok intends to replace the employees with AI systems and subcontracted moderators. Concerns are growing, particularly regarding AI replacing human moderators.
A Flemish content moderator, who has worked in Berlin for 3.5 years, spoke anonymously to VRT NWS. He expressed concerns about safety, stating, “We often intervene too late in dangerous trends due to being understaffed or not informed by management. Replacing us with AI will make the app less safe.” According to the source, there are eleven Dutch-speaking moderators in Berlin.
Human moderation is indispensable, argues AI expert Olivier Cauberghs on Radio 1’s De Ochtend. He warns of increased inappropriate and illegal content, such as hate speech and sexually explicit videos. “AI is a good tool but cannot detect subtle forms of hate speech, using emojis, codewords, and music. Human moderators have that insight.”
Cauberghs notes a worrying trend: “In recent years, social media companies have increasingly reduced their moderation teams.”
