One year after the death of one of Mark Zuckerberg's network moderators at his workplace, The Verge is publishing a new survey on their deplorable working conditions. For the first time, three of them testified with their faces uncovered.
Published on Wednesday, June 19, The Verge's report features unpublished testimonials from three former Facebook content moderators: Shawn Speagle, Melynda Johnso, and Michelle Bennetti.
They worked at one of Facebook's moderation sites in Tampa, Florida. Six to nine months after they were hired, they cracked.
Today, they tell the other side of the story in front of the camera.
The tone is set
The video and the report begin with a warning message:
"This video/story contains descriptions of violent acts against people and animals, accounts of sexual harassment and post-traumatic stress disorder, and other potentially disturbing content".
15,000 moderators.... muzzled
Regularly questioned, the social network has strengthened its policy of cleaning up content.
In total, Facebook employs 30,000 people dedicated to the safety and security of the social network. Half of them are dedicated to content moderation. All of them sign a confidentiality agreement.
In 2017, Facebook opened three sites in the southern United States: Phoenix, Austin and Tampa. These sites are managed by Cognizant, a company linked to Facebook for two years with a $200 million contract.
To hire them, managers do not hesitate to lie to them. The article states that job offers for content moderation are misleading, with posts named for example "social network analyst".
Behind this generic title is, in fact, one of the most difficult tasks: filtering the horrors published all day long on the world's largest social network.
To attract them, the hourly wage ($15) is barely higher than the average wage (barely $9 in Florida). The annual income of these shadow workers is a modest $28,000.
A 9-minute "wellness" break per day
The working conditions are harsh.
During a working day, moderators have only two 15-minute breaks. For lunch, only 30 minutes. They are also given a 9-minute "wellness" break to take a step back if they are overwhelmed by emotion after seeing a publication.
The images are so violent (sexual exploitation of children, animal abuse, extreme violence, etc.) that some moderators are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a syndrome generally characteristic of soldiers returning from the front.
According to journalist Casey Newton, who also interviewed employees at the Phoenix site, some employees saw conspiracy after being confronted with conspiracy theories. Others remain haunted by the images they saw during the day.
That's what Shawn Speagle tells the reporter. With tears in his eyes, he described a video of two teenagers torturing an iguana, which shocked him particularly.
In six months, he would have moderated 100 to 200 contents per day.
Sexual harassment, nail clippings, and pubic hair
The insalubrity of the premises is also an issue.
In less than a year, Phoenix's premises were infested twice with bed bugs. Faced with employees' concerns about a potential invasion of their homes, the manager reportedly made it clear that Cognizant would certainly not pay for the cleaning.
Some explain that they regularly find pubic hair and nail clippings on their desks.
Finally, the testimonies show that the work environment is toxic and harassment - including sexual harassment - is omnipresent.
In the video report, Melynda Johnson compared Tampa to a "sweatshop".
“We were bodies in seats,” says Shawn Speagle, who emerged from his depression. “We were nothing to them — at all”.
He concludes: “I think Facebook needs to shut down”.
I strongly encourage you to read the entire report, you'll learn loads of surprising things...
Source : The Verge
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