BEIJING—Popular short-video app TikTok said it would halt using China-based moderators to monitor overseas content and shift that work to those outside of China.

The decision will result in the transfer of more than 100 China-based moderators to other positions within the company, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move is the latest effort by TikTok’s owner Bytedance Inc. to distance itself from concerns about it being a Chinese-operated company. The soaring popularity of TikTok has attracted the attention of some American lawmakers worried about its Chinese roots.

TikTok is Bytedance’s short-video app for markets outside of China. While much of TikTok’s content moderation procedures have been localized over the past year or two—including in the U.S., where none of its videos are monitored by moderators in China, according to a TikTok spokesman—some markets such as Germany still rely on human moderators in China to review content.

Bytedance this month told more than 100 China-based content moderators that they will have to find a new position within the company, people familiar with the matter said. While it isn’t a layoff, some could end up leaving the company as a result of the restructuring, these people said.