TikTok is rushing to build teams around the world to moderate its streams of viral videos, after increasing concerns that its young users are being exposed to the same sort of toxic content that has plagued YouTube and Facebook.
The Chinese-owned app, which has amassed over 1bn monthly users in just three years, will also outsource all decision-making about what videos are acceptable to its local teams in the US, Europe and India after running into criticism about whether it is censoring content along Chinese government guidelines.
In the US, where TikTok has topped the download charts at times this year, responsibility for content has been fully localised and there are plans to add more “subject matter experts” in 2020, said Eric Han, its US head of safety.