TikTok faces legal action over moderator cuts

TikTok is being threatened with ineligible enactment implicit cuts to its UK online information teams.

In August, the societal media institution announced more than 400 workers would suffer their jobs, with AI replacing immoderate of the workers and different jobs being rehired abroad.

TikTok is being accused of threatening those information workers with redundancy days earlier they were owed to ballot connected forming a union.

Read more: TikTok moderators pass users whitethorn beryllium astatine risk

Now, 2 moderators person sent a ineligible missive to TikTok laying retired the presumption of a imaginable ineligible lawsuit connected grounds of unlawful detriment and automatic unfair dismissal.

Unlawful detriment is erstwhile an leader treats a idiosyncratic unfairly due to the fact that they utilized a protected employment right, for example, being a national representative, asking for flexible moving oregon whistleblowing astir the company.

"In June, TikTok said it was going to prosecute hundreds much contented moderators, past 2 months later, they fired everyone," said Stella Caram, caput of ineligible astatine Foxglove, a non-profit supporting the moderators.

"What changed? Workers exercised their ineligible close to effort to signifier a commercialized union. This is obvious, blatant and unlawful union-busting," she said.

TikTok has been fixed 1 period to respond to the ineligible claim.

A TikTok spokesperson said: "We erstwhile again powerfully cull this baseless claim.

"These changes were portion of a wider planetary reorganisation, arsenic we germinate our planetary operating exemplary for Trust and Safety with the payment of technological advancements to proceed maximising information for our users."

The 2 moderators launching the lawsuit are moving with the United Tech & Allied Workers (UTAW), the non-profit ineligible organisation Foxglove and instrumentality steadfast Leigh Day.

In exclusive interviews past month, three whistleblowers told Sky News the cuts would enactment UK users astatine risk, a assertion repeated by Julio Miguel Franco, 1 of the moderators down the ineligible action.

"TikTok needs to archer the truth," helium said.

"When it says AI tin bash our occupation of keeping radical harmless connected TikTok, it knows that's rubbish.

"Instead, they privation to bargain our jobs and nonstop them to different countries wherever they tin wage radical little and dainty them worse. The extremity effect is TikTok becomes little harmless for everyone."

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Internal documents seen by Sky News amusement that TikTok planned to support its quality moderators successful London for astatine slightest the remainder of 2025.

The documents laic retired the expanding request for dedicated moderators due to the fact that of the increasing measurement and complexity of moderation.

TikTok's caput of governance, Ali Law, besides told MPs successful February that "human moderators ... person to usage their nuance, skills and training" to beryllium capable to mean hateful behaviour, misinformation and misleading information.

After a bid of letters betwixt TikTok and MPs, Dame Chi Onwurah, seat of the subject and exertion prime committee, said she was "deeply" acrophobic astir the cuts.

"There is simply a existent hazard to the lives of TikTok users," she said.

Last month, successful an exclusive sitdown with Sky News, however, Mr Law said idiosyncratic information would not beryllium compromised.

"We acceptable a precocious benchmark erstwhile it comes to rolling retired caller moderation technology.

"In particular, we marque definite that we fulfill ourselves that the output of existing moderation processes is either matched oregon exceeded by thing that we're doing connected a caller basis.

"We besides marque definite the changes are introduced connected a gradual ground with quality oversight truthful that if determination isn't a level of transportation successful enactment with what we expect, we tin code that."