TUC – TikTok “must come clean” as MPs probe mass AI-driven job cuts
TikTok “must answer” questions from MPs over plans to replace more than 400 UK jobs with AI-driven content moderation and low-paid workers abroad
Unions and online safety campaigners sounded the alarm earlier this month amid fears up to 30 million UK TikTok users are at growing risk from harmful online content such as deep fakes, toxicity and abuse with fewer safety-critical roles in content moderation
Science, Innovation and Technology Committee now investigating with series of questions in open letter
TikTok “must come clean” as MPs probe mass AI-driven job cuts, says the TUC today (Thursday).
Earlier this month unions and some of the UK’s highest profile online safety campaigners sounded the alarm over a proposed wave of over 400 job cuts from TikTok’s London-based Trust and Safety Team - responsible for protecting users and communities from harmful online content.
In an open letter to MPs sent on 13 October, the TUC warned that up to 30 million TikTok users (including an estimated 1 million children under the age of 13) are at risk without safety-critical staff working in content moderation.
Today Chi Onwurah MP, Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, has written to TikTok with a string of questions about the proposed redundancies – including asking whether the company has carried out a risk assessment of the proposed job losses on the safety of its UK userbase.
TikTok has until 10 November to respond. The TUC says it will be holding TikTok's feet to the fire for full transparency, and applauds the Select Committee's “swift” action.
The TUC says replacing UK jobs with AI and offshoring to countries where workers have less rights is “reprehensible”.
The union body points out that there is “no business case” for the redundancies, with TikTok’s revenues booming.
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “It is time for TikTok to come clean. Time and time again they have been asked about the impact of these cuts on the safety of millions of Brits, and time and time again they have failed to provide a good enough answer.
“The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has acted swiftly with its probe, now TikTok must explain how they are going to keep users safe if these cuts to safety-critical jobs go ahead."
The TUC’s open letter to MPs, published on 13/10/25 reads:
Dear Chi Onwurah MP, chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee,
In June 2025 TikTok made an announcement to much fanfare about the company’s UK expansion and creation of hundreds of jobs amid a “deep commitment to safety and to creating an enjoyable and secure digital space”.
Three months later TikTok announced a devastating wave of over 400 job losses from the London office.
Every single redundancy is targeted at the ‘Trust and Safety Team’, effectively ending content moderation in London - with similar cuts to human moderation happening worldwide.
These safety-critical workers are the frontline of protecting users and communities from deep fakes, toxicity and abuse.
The UK has 30 million TikTok users, of which well over 1 million are estimated by the official regulator to be children under 13 - despite TikTok’s own rules stating that 13 is the minimum age to create an account.
TikTok is already subject to an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office for misuse of children’s data.
And now it is looking to replace skilled UK workers with unproven AI-driven content moderation and with workers in places like Kenya or the Philippines who are subject to gruelling conditions, poverty pay and precarity as they toil for Big Tech’s billionaires.
The mass UK job cuts were announced just eight days before workers were scheduled to vote on union recognition with the United Tech and Allied Workers, the tech-focused branch of the Communication Workers Union. These workers sought a union for job security and protection for whistleblowing on unethical practices.
There is no proper business case for making these redundancies. TikTok’s revenues are booming – with a 40% increase for the UK and Europe alone.
Yet the company has decided to cut corners. We believe this decision is an act of union-busting - at the cost of workers’ rights, user safety and the integrity of online information.
We call on TikTok to:
Reverse the planned Trust and Safety redundancies in London
Maintain robust human-led content moderation standards
Respect workers' rights to organise without interference
And we ask your committee to:
Investigate these developments through the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, inviting union representatives to provide evidence regarding the importance of human moderation and regarding TikTok's union-busting.
Examine the implications for UK online safety and worker rights of TikTok’s actions and investigate what legislative steps could be taken to prevent offshoring or replacing human moderators with AI.
Signatories include
Trades Union Congress
Communication Workers Union & United Tech and Allied Workers
Ian Russell MBE, Chair, Molly Rose Foundation
Imran Ahmed, CEO, Center for Countering Digital Hate
Adele Zeynep Walton, Campaigner, families and survivors to prevent online suicide harms
Özlem Walton, Campaigner, families and survivors to prevent online suicide harms
Alice Hendy MBE, CEO and founder, Ripple Suicide Prevention
Professor Sonia Livingstone, Director, Digital Futures for Children
Arturo Bejar, Meta whistleblower, Advocate for Teen Safety Online
Professor Clare McGlynn, Durham Law School and leading expert on online safety
Maeve Walsh, Director, Online Safety Act Network
Professor Olga Jurasz, Director, Centre for Protecting Women Online
tèmítópé lasade-anderson, Executive Director, Glitch
Sophie Lennox, communications officer, Everyone’s Invited
Duncan McCann, Head of Tech & Data Campaigns, Good Law Project
Paul Jones, Founder, FlippGen CIC
Diarmaid McDonald, Director, Just Treatment
Jessica Davies, Women’s safety and online misogyny campaigner and author
Dr. Elinor Carmi, Senior Lecturer at City St George's University of London
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