TikTok Videos are Under Investigation for Extreme Violence

The company that assesses whether images are over the line for video app TikTok, among other things, is making a U-turn after the earlier promise to no longer expose employees to extremely violent images.

Four months ago, Teleperformance said it was stepping out of the most extreme supervision branch because employees suffered mentally. But now the Paris-based company says it will continue with those activities.

Apps and social media have rules for which users can and cannot post images, and Teleperformance hires people to enforce them. But in November, the company announced it would stop reviewing “very extreme content” for apps like TikTok, following news reports from Time Magazine, among others, about employee trauma. They would have incurred it through videos or photos of, for example, violence, animal abuse or suicide.

But this week, insiders reported to the Bloomberg news agency that Teleperformance is still instructing employees in Tunisia to review images depicting child abuse, animal cruelty and violence. Financial director Olivier Rigaudy stated that the company still had to fulfil current contracts. In addition, it would be difficult to define precisely which images count as “very extreme” according to the laws and cultures of different countries.

Now Teleperformance has made the final choice to continue to monitor the worst uploads of social media users. According to the company, that choice was preceded by internal and external investigations and discussions with employees. The decision would be in the best interest of customers and the “billions of people” who visit their sites or apps.