Diary of a TikTok moderator: ‘We are the people who sweep up the mess’

TikTok says it has more than 40,000 professionals dedicated to keeping the platform safe. Moderators work alongside automated moderation systems, reviewing content in more than 70 languages.

Earlier this year, TikTok invited journalists to its new “transparency and accountability” centre, a move aimed at showing the company wanted to be more open. It says moderators receive training that is thorough and under constant review.

Yet little is really known about the working lives of these teams. One moderator, who asked to remain anonymous, explained to the Guardian how difficult the job could be. They said they were judged on how quickly they moderated and how many mistakes they made, with bonuses and pay rises dependent on hitting certain targets.

They are also monitored. The moderator claimed that if they are inactive for five minutes, their computer shuts down, and after 15 minutes of doing nothing they have to answer to a team leader. “Our speed and accuracy is constantly analysed and compared to colleagues,” they said. “It is pretty souldestroying. We are the people in the nightclub who sweep up the mess after a night out.”

Here is a first-hand account from a moderator at TikTok:

Training: ‘Everyone found it overwhelming’

When we joined we were given one month of intensive training that was so dense it was impossible to absorb. It was six to seven hours a day going over the policies. These are the rules that determine whether a video should be tagged or not,and watching example videos. Everyone found it overwhelming. At the end of the month, there was a test that the trainer walked us through, ensuring we all passed. This has happened in other mandatory training sessions after the probation period as well.

Next, was two months of probation where we moderated on practice queues that consisted of hundreds