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Coco Feng

ByteDance has parted ways with a senior executive who oversaw content moderation and data labelling for its China-focused apps, according to sources and media reports, as the Beijing-based company advances content security amid Beijing’s strict censorship requirements.
Li Tong, who led the Content Quality and Data Service (CQC) team under Douyin Group, was no longer listed in ByteDance’s internal employee system, according to people familiar with the matter. Douyin, one of ByteDance’s core business units, operates several flagship products, including its namesake short-video platform – the Chinese version of TikTok – and the news aggregator Jinri Toutiao.
Li also served as deputy editor-in-chief of Toutiao, according to Chinese media outlet The Paper, which first reported the personnel change on Friday.
An employee, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters, described Li as a “very senior” employee who had been at ByteDance for many years.
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Founded in 2017, the CQC team is responsible for overseeing content quality and user experience across more than 10 products. Past job descriptions for CQC described the team’s role as necessary because “some highly sensitive content cannot be spotted by machine”. In mainland China, platform operators are legally responsible for censoring content considered illegal.
In May, the Cyberspace Administration of China said it would continue to regulate how online platforms recommend and manage content, an initiative that started in October. One of the goals was to reduce “vulgar” content.
The CQC team spans over 10 cities on the mainland, with locations including a content quality centre, a data and model services centre and an operations support centre, according to previous job listings.
In March, the CQC sought third-party vendors to assist with data labelling for artificial intelligence (AI) development, especially as it related to healthcare, law and education, local media reported. The move signalled the department’s expanding role in data labelling alongside content moderation.
Data labelling has been a critical component of AI development at ByteDance, but it is not as widely used for content control. Douyin president Han Shangyou said in March that the short video platform’s recommendation system did not depend on conventional methods of labelling content or users.
Like other Chinese tech giants, ByteDance has recently focused on enhancing its AI applications and large language models. The surprise success of DeepSeek at the beginning of the year spurred a race in open-source model development, with deep-pocketed tech firms investing heavily in the massive amounts of data and computing resources needed to train foundational models.
ByteDance now offers multiple AI products for generating text, images and audio. Its consumer-facing chatbot Doubao ranked as the third-most popular AI app in China in May, trailing only DeepSeek and AI search tool Nano Search, operated by 360 Security Technology, according to AIcpb.com, a site that tracks the popularity of AI apps.


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Li Tong, who led Douyin’s content quality team, is no longer listed in ByteDance’s internal employee system, according to sources


Li Tong, who led Douyin’s content quality team, is no longer listed in ByteDance’s internal employee system, according to sources.


ByteDance’s China head of content quality leaves amid stricter censorship requirements

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Li Tong, who led Douyin’s content quality team, is no longer listed in ByteDance’s internal employee system, according to sources

Li Tong, who led Douyin’s content quality team, is no longer listed in ByteDance’s internal employee system, according to sources