TIKTOK plans to axe or reassign a number of Irish staff at its Dublin headquarters, it has been confirmed.
The Chinese social media company, which currently employs around 3,000 people in the capital, confirmed the shock move as part of a global restructuring of the company’s work processes.
It is understood that the move will affect the social media giant’s training and quality teams, many of which are based in Dublin.
A spokesperson told the Irish Sun that they expect several hundred people will be leaving the company globally but could not confirm how many staff based in Dublin would be affected.
They added: “The vast majority of the team will actually remain in the business whether that’s part of a new design team or as part of other roles.”
The TikTok app – hugely popular with teenagers and young people – has been a global revelation since its launch in 2016 with one billion active users each month.
It allows people to create and share short videos with various music and filters where some go viral online.
The staff affected by the move currently work with TikTok’s moderators but the company claims that their moderation efforts would not be affected.
A TikTok spokesperson told the Irish Sun: “As we continue to deliver on our unwavering commitment to safeguard the TikTok community, we’re undertaking a redesign of our training and quality team that will enable us to further enhance our quality assurance processes.”
They explained that their current priority is “supporting affected employees” through this transition to “minimise the impact” of the changes.
They added: “Ireland remains a hugely important base for us and we’re continuing to hire for roles across our business here.”
The company also confirmed that it expects the majority of workers affected to be offered alternative roles within the company.
It comes just weeks after PayPal proposed to cut 205 jobs in Ireland.
Job cuts
This will bring the total number employed in Ireland to 1,600.
And the news of restructuring at TikTok come on the same day the European Commission announced a new investigation into child safety at TikTok.
They will investigate whether TikTok’s owner ByteDance breached online content rules aimed at protecting children and ensuring transparent advertising.
WHAT IS TIKTOK?
TIKTOK is a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short videos.
The app, formerly known as Musical.ly, allows users to create videos and share them across a community.
TikTok has a minimum user age of 13 years-old.
In Ireland the Digital Age of Consent has been set at 16 years-old.
For children under that age consent must be given by the parent or guardian of the child.
Like most other apps and social networks, users can follow other users, like and comment on other user’s videos.
Messages can also be sent and videos can be shared via DM with other users on the platform.
The search tool allows users to view other videos but users can also view content under the trending hashtags on the ‘For You’ page.
Trending hashtags allow users to view content that is currently popular, and contribute their own video to that trend using the same hashtag.
The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which applies to all online platforms since February 17, requires in particular very large online platforms and search engines to do more to tackle illegal online content and risks to public security.
The platform is at risk of hefty fines up to six per cent after EU industry chief Thierry Breton said he took the decision after analysing the short video app’s risk assessment report and its replies to requests for information.
Taking to X, the boss said: “Today we open an investigation into TikTok over suspected breach of transparency & obligations to protect minors: addictive design & screen time limits, rabbit hole effect, age verification, default privacy settings.”
A TikTok spokesperson said: “TikTok has pioneered features and settings to protect teens and keep under 13s off the platform, issues the whole industry is grappling with.”
