Report that Twitch was dismissing employees in charge of content moderation and AI ethics

It was reported that Amazon's video distribution platform `` Twitch '' was affected by Amazon's large-scale dismissal and dismissed about 15% of the employees in charge of moderation. Experts are concerned about the impact on content protection regimes.

Amazon's Twitch Safety, AI Ethics Job Cuts Raise Concerns Among Ex-Workers - Bloomberg

About 15% of staff responsible for monitoring abuse and illegal activity streamed on Twitch have been laid off, according to a former employee familiar with the matter, and several features aimed at addressing the platform's safety challenges. And the initiative is in a state of floating in the air.

Staffing cuts have hit hardest, especially those who handled complaints from banned or suspended streamers. Former employees also say some of the work will be outsourced.

Twitch delivers 2.5 million hours of live content every day, but not all content is directly monitored. With several terrorist attacks live on Twitch, including the 2022 supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York, the company needs advanced policing tools.

Twitch has invested in moderation tools such as AutoMod as the platform has grown, and has taken measures such as hiring experts to evaluate user reports and remove content that violates its terms of service or the law. We are already doing it.

Twitch first publishes transparency report including statistical information such as number of calls to police - GIGAZINE

Twitch executives also met with representatives of UK regulator Ofcom to discuss the company's plans to combat child sex crimes on the platform. Twitch had plans to help rehabilitate exiled creators and educate them about responsible behavior and copyright.

It was reported that moderation team personnel were dismissed during these efforts, which experts say ``may significantly impede efforts to reduce online abuse and harassment.'' The former employee also said, 'Twitch has closed a new team to monitor AI efforts.'

Amazon has announced that it will lay off more than 18,000 employees in January 2023 and will make an additional cut of more than 9,000 in March of the same year. The reduction targets mainly include employees in AWS, Twitch, advertising, and human resources departments, and the CEO said that he responded to the impact of the economic slowdown.

Amazon announces additional reduction of more than 9,000 people following reduction of more than 18,000 people - GIGAZINE