TikTok’s moderators still review child abuse despite vow to exit

A portion of the Tunis-based TikTok moderators review queues of videos in a restricted-access room. One of the queues can include highly egregious content, one of the people said. — Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP

Staff at Teleperformance are still reviewing TikTok’s most disturbing content, including child sexual abuse, despite the company’s pledge to exit the business following shareholder backlash last year.

The Paris-based contractor, which operates call centers and content moderation teams for some of the world’s largest companies, has about 500 employees working for TikTok in Tunisia, some of whom spend their days looking at harmful videos posted to the social network, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information. These include child sexual abuse, animal abuse, gore and violent images, they said.