TikTok USDS JV, which manages the U.S. operations of TikTok, is shutting down its office in Nashville. Up until now, that office was the home of part of the platform’s local moderation team.
As reported by The New York Times, TikTok is laying off 250 employees as a result of the change, and the Nashville office is set to close on October 5.
As per NYT: “Employees at the office … received emails on Wednesday morning notifying them of the decision, according to a copy of the email reviewed by The New York Times. Several workers who asked to remain anonymous said they had been logged out of their company devices and told that they would receive severance.”
TikTok USDS told the New York Times in a statement that the decision to shutter its Nashville office was made in an effort to streamline operations and better align its teams for long-term growth.
TikTok did not share details regarding the impacts of this closure on its moderation efforts. The company also declined to comment on replacing labor capacity lost as a result of the change.
Last month, TikTok USDS shared its first platform security and community guidelines reports, which detail the work being undertaken by its moderation team as it works to reduce user exposure to potentially harmful content.
The report data showed that TikTok USDS removed more than 8.4 million videos from the platform this year between January 22 and March 31.
Around 82% of those videos were removed via automated detection, with TikTok’s human moderators working to clarify and confirm potential violations.
With advances in artificial intelligence, TikTok USDS might be more confident about empowering its AI tools to undertake the role of human operators, which could explain this staffing change.
TikTok currently serves more than 200 million users in the U.S.
