Recent reports have revealed that ByteDance Ltd., the parent company of TikTok, was forced to lay off hundreds of employees in Malaysia.
A source told The Malaysian Reserve that most of the workers are involved in content moderation for the platform, not only in South-East Asia but also in other regions.
“That’s how we were all treated”
Chad (pseudonym), a former employee of the company, reached out to WORLD OF BUZZ to share that nearly 700 employees were laid off.
He explained that employees received the news on October 9 at 7 PM, and that all access to emails, social media accounts, and more was suddenly cut off at 8 PM. An email was then sent out announcing the retrenchment.
“On October 9 at 7 PM, all queues and permissions were cut off. At 8 PM, an email was sent out about the retrenchment. That’s how we were all treated and informed about the layoffs. Our last day would be on November 11.”
Reuters also reported that TikTok confirmed the layoffs on Friday but couldn’t provide an exact number of employees affected in Malaysia.
They expect that several hundred people will be impacted globally as part of a broader plan to improve their moderation operations.
Some of the employees were transferred to other teams
According to the South China Morning Post, TikTok announced internally in May that job cuts are expected to affect an undisclosed portion of the roughly 1,000 jobs globally.
The number of job cuts would be in the hundreds, particularly affecting the global user operations team, which is set to be disbanded.
Additionally, US online tech publication The Information reported that the layoffs would impact “a large percentage” of TikTok employees. However, one source mentioned that some of the affected employees were offered the option to transfer to other teams.
WORLD OF BUZZ has reached out to ByteDance Ltd. but has not yet received a response.
Also read: M’sians Believe That a Major Recession Will Happen in 2023 Since Companies Are Laying Off Staff
