Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

TikTok CEO says the company is set up to avoid the kind of job cuts Elon Musk made at Twitter: 'We don't need to lay off half the workforce to achieve the efficiency levels that we want'

TikTok CEO says the company is set up to avoid the kind of job cuts Elon Musk made at Twitter: 'We don't need to lay off half the workforce to achieve the efficiency levels that we want'

Days after reports that Elon Musk laid off many contracted content moderators, TikTok's CEO says moderators are key to keeping a platform safe. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the company won't need to cut half its staff like Twitter.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said that the company is well-equipped to avoid mass layoffs in response to questions related to Elon Musk's decision to fire around half of Twitter's staff to cut costs.

"I hope that day never comes," Chew said during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Wednesday. "The way we are organized is one where we don't need to lay off half the workforce to achieve the efficiency levels that we want to achieve."

Chew emphasized that content moderation plays a critical role in efforts to secure TikTok, which is why the platform employs tens and thousands of employees in content moderation, he said. 

"For many tech companies, including ourselves, one of the largest teams that you will have is your trust and safety team," Chew said, according to Bloomberg. "That is an investment that is definitely worthwhile if you want to keep the platform a very safe platform."

Chew said that its "too early too tell" what direction Twitter is headed under Musk's leadership. 

Chew's remarks come just days after Musk began layoffs for content moderators that were outsourced under contracts at Twitter, which led some to voice concern over how the platform will battle misinformation.

While Twitter hasn't confirmed how many contract workers it laid off, content moderation expert Sarah Roberts, who was a staff researcher at Twitter, tweeted on Sunday that at least 3,000 of them lost their jobs on Saturday night. 

At the same time, TikTok reportedly pledged to double its engineering staff in Mountain View, California to 2,000 employees to beef up data security protocols, two people familiar with the matter told The Information.

Despite industry-wide layoffs across the tech sector, TikTok continues to see its overall earnings grow. Still, the platform slashed its global ad revenue target by around $2 billion earlier this month in response to plummeting sales, blaming the company's advertising and e-commerce teams for underperforming.

TikTok has also come under scrutiny after TikTok confirmed in a letter to Republican senators sent in late June that ByteDance employees based in China can access US user data.

An October report said the platform's parent company ByteDance had discussed plans to gather location data on at least two users in the US. TikTok said in a statement at the time that its app "does not collect precise GPS location information from US users."

TikTok's influence on the US is now seen by the FBI as a national security threat to the country, FBI's investigation director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Tuesday. He said he was "extremely concerned" that the Chinese government may use TikTok to collect data on millions of American users, manipulate recommendation algorithms, and control software that can compromise millions of personal devices.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
×