Employees at TikTok are staging a one-day warning strike today, July 23, 2025. The trade-union ver.di is calling for the strike. The background of the strike is the company’s plan to dissolve the Trust and Safety department, in which content moderators for the German-speaking region are employed. The work of content moderators is to be taken over in the future by so-called artificial intelligence and outsourced to external service providers. Working conditions at these external providers are significantly worse. Additionally, part of the so-called Live department is also set to be dissolved. Employees in this department are responsible for contact with content creators on TikTok.
Content moderation is an extremely psychologically demanding job, as employees are regularly exposed to highly distressing content. For this reason, comprehensive health prevention measures to reduce psychological strain are essential. The union ver.di sees a danger that TikTok is trying to shirk responsibility for the working conditions of content moderators through outsourcing.
Especially in the area of combating hate speech and fake news, oversight by well-trained moderators is of great importance. These moderators must possess in-depth knowledge of cultural and political contexts in order to identify problematic content. However, by outsourcing this work to artificial intelligence and third-party providers, the role is being devalued. There is a risk that TikTok will increasingly become a platform for manipulative campaigns, as was already observed during the last presidential election in Romania.
Over the past few months, employees were tasked with training the AI that is now meant to replace them—and are now being discarded by the company. They are resisting this under the slogan: “We trained your machines – pay us what we deserve!”
They are demanding:
Severance payments of three years’ salary for each employee affected by the layoffs
An extension of the notice period by 12 months for each employee affected by the layoffs
These demands are justified by TikTok’s high profits. At the same time, the specific training and expertise of the content moderators is being massively devalued through the dismissals. Meeting these demands would enable the affected employees to acquire new qualifications. The urgency of these demands is further increased by the fact that, for some employees, losing their job could also endanger their residency status.
Despite repeated requests by ver.di, TikTok’s management has refused to enter negotiations. Against this backdrop, employees are going on a one-day warning strike on July 23, 2025. It is the first strike by employees of a social media platform in Germany.
“It is disrespectful of TikTok to shirk all social responsibility and even refuse to negotiate with us. Today, the employees are sending a clear signal that they will not accept this. They are going on strike and, in doing so, becoming pioneers of union organizing in the platform economy,” says Lucas Krentel, Deputy Regional Head of the Media Division at ver.di Berlin-Brandenburg.
The employees will hold a boat tour on the Spree River to make the strike visible from the water. They will dock again at 12:30 PM and then hold a strike rally on land.
TikTok Strike Rally
Time: 12:30 PM
Location: Mühlenstraße 70-71, 10243 Berlin
