Facebook responds to report that many content moderators suffer from PTSD

The Hill ^ | 02/25/19 | Emily Birnbaum

[Grampa Dave]

while the average Facebook employee makes around $240,000.

I just sent that to a couple of in laws addicted to Facebook and claiming to be conservatives.

[dead]

“People really started to believe these posts they were supposed to be moderating,” one employee told The Verge. “They were saying, ‘Oh gosh, they weren’t really there. Look at this CNN video of David Hogg — he’s too old to be in school.’ People started Googling things instead of doing their jobs and looking into conspiracy theories about them. We were like, ‘Guys, no, this is the crazy stuff we’re supposed to be moderating. What are you doing?’” One moderator began to express theories that the earth is flat, while another began to deny that the Holocaust happened, The Verge reported.

Except for the very crappy pay, it actually sounds kinda fun.

[Drew68]

This article doesn’t say, but they outsource these moderator jobs to Thailand. And places like that.

YouTube outsources to the Philippines. The place Facebook uses, Cognizant, is based in Phoenix.

[Drew68]

Try working in a hospital for 30+ years

Very true. Hospital workers, EMTs, cops. Lots of people see horrible stuff at work every day.

[Drew68]

People started Googling things instead of doing their jobs and looking into conspiracy theories about them. We were like, ‘Guys, no, this is the crazy stuff we’re supposed to be moderating. What are you doing?’”

LOL! Independent fact-checking not permitted! Use Snopes!

[dead]

Cognizant is based in Teaneck, NJ (I interviewed there), but more than half their employees are based in India.

[Responsibility2nd]

Thank you. I was confusing YouTube with Facebook.

[grania]

FB would do itself a real big favor if it hired real grownups with open minds and terrific historical and cultural knowledge to do the moderating. And then put them in some isolated town, far away from the influence of their loony left FB coworkers.

[BlackAdderess]

It seems like they have been pushing AI to perform creative work in order to take jobs that humans are currently doing. Maybe a better thing for AI to be focused on is cleaning up the messes that the digital revolution has created. Sitting through 8 hours a day of beheading videos is something human beings cannot do without becoming damaged as a result.

If, for example, AI was written/trained to recognize genre and to some extent correctness, it could be used to take the vast array of creative material that is already out there, languishing and unsorted, and machine sort it into a usable and profitable form.

Recognizing the genre of terrorist propaganda video or writing could be an early testing ground since you know darned well that if a video isn’t criminal or terroristic in nature, some user is going to be there to ask “why do you always delete my videos?!”

It’s just a thought. This is bothering me.

I think their instincts are good in getting people to make judgment calls, its just that they are being used for far more clear cut cases as well that are flagrant violations.

[Drew68]

while the average Facebook employee makes around $240,000.

More accurately, they are compensated with a package valued at $240,000, whatever this means.

[Drew68]

Cognizant is based in Teaneck, NJ (I interviewed there), but more than half their employees are based in India.

I assumed Phoenix because that's where the Verge article said they interviewed people at.

[Drew68]

I’ll bet someone could write an algorithm to weed out the beheading videos. Save the human review for things that are more of a judgment call.

Could it tell a real beheading video from a clip from Game of Thrones?

Or they could just leave them alone like Russia's Facebook-clone VKontakte does.

[BlackAdderess]

It could yank beheading videos and if anyone wants to complain they can account for their relationship with the video. In the case of criminal activity it is likely that they won’t and you can just jank them.

As long as they have to deal with these things they might as well put them to good use.

[Starcitizen]

True and Facebook hired an Indian company to do its moderation. How wrong is that?

[Starcitizen]

Its an Indian company, with a branch in New Jersey. So we are letting foriegners control our social media...

[Admin Moderator]

The contractors described oppressive working conditions, with limited breaks and heavy scrutiny, and a job with an intense emotional toll. Content reviewers are asked to look through hundreds of posts per day, including images and videos of graphic violence, sexual exploitation, hate speech and harassment, in order to flag and take down posts that violate Facebook's complex guidelines.

Yeah, but do they have to deal with Laz?

[thoughtomator]

I still have trauma from some of the stuff I saw in government mailboxes from the time I did email admin for a federal department. There are some things that it is just no good for a man to see.

[Chode]

QUIT YOU STOOOPID BASTARDS, QUIT!!!