TikTok has announced mass layoffs as it looks to replace staff with artificial intelligence. Around 160 of the social media firm’s four hundred employees in Berlin have lost their jobs. Many are up before the Labor Court in the German capital.
Most work in content moderation — at TikTok, a department called “Trust and Safety.” It’s a new field of work, and it’s already set to disappear again through the use of AI and outsourcing. Those who work in the field watch videos and filter out content not suitable for users. The psychological burden is enormous. Sleeping problems are practically an “occupational hazard,” says Sarah Tegge, who works as a content moderator. You can’t do it for long — on average, after three or four years you’re out of the job and can’t take it anymore, she says. Employees like her watch 800 to 1,000 videos a day. But not today — because they’re on strike.
They’re fighting back against being “disposable.” “AI can’t do this job well,” says Tegge. Many are proud of their work because they’re making the internet a safer place. And people are angry — you can feel it in the air. One employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, came to Berlin from abroad and left her family behind. Her case isn’t an exception, says Kathlen Eggerling, the lead negotiator for Ver.di, Germany’s second-largest trade union. The employees come from all over the world. They were assured they would be entering an exciting new field of work — and it sounded like a promising opportunity. What the company didn’t tell them was that they would spend years training an algorithm that was intended to replace them as quickly and cheaply as possible.
The fact that so many employees came from abroad for the job…
Auteur: Astrid Zimmermann
