That is a horrifying job to have. I don't see how anyone could view this sort of material all day, day after day, and not be scarred emotionally. I used to work in Unix/Linux Sysadmin at a Fortune 50 company. Sometimes an employee would be accused of having objectionable material on their computer. We had a lot more Windows machines than Unix/Linux, so I presume a Windows admin had to investigate those. When the machine in question was a Unix/Linux machine, I was one of two people who were assigned to investigate. It had to be someone with technical skills, since these people, usually engineers with some knowledge of the systems, tended to try to hide the material. We'd go into a locked server room and sit at a monitor aimed away from the door so that no one could accidentally be exposed to such material at work. Then we'd look for it. Mostly it was fairly ordinary porn, something I don't like, but hardly traumatizing. A few times it was worse, and one time still haunts me nearly 20 years later. These poor people doing facebook moderation look at that sort of thing constantly all day. I'm surprised they do as well as they do. I just could not handle it in that quantity. It seems that they can't either, and that's totally understandable.
After reading just the descriptions of these videos, I'm shellshocked. I can't even imagine having to watch them. These poor workers -- there's so much suffering in this world...
This article focused mostly on situation at Cognizant facilities in Florida where they have some basic legal labor protections. It only briefly touched on global scope of the problem and mentioned Philippines specifically.
Another article I read portrayed a much abhorrent scenario of Philippine mother’s doing piece meal content sorting from home and the horrific images they are exposed to with no Psych counseling resources to support them.
I am sure their work is also being used to train AI engines to automate this work and eliminate these positions leaving thousands scarred in the process.
This is one job where automation could be a blessing. No humans with a shred of empathy should have to see such images. I can’t stand even hearing about what these moderators are exposed to. I’m learning so much from Readup but it’s so heartbreaking to know the kinds of jobs people have to do to pay for food and a roof over their heads—while they’re caretaking aged parents.
Everyone should read this. If Facebook was a literal place it would be shut down. In truth it’s much worse than a literal place it should be shut down.
I think anyone who reads this or spends a day as a content monitor would agree.
That is a horrifying job to have. I don't see how anyone could view this sort of material all day, day after day, and not be scarred emotionally. I used to work in Unix/Linux Sysadmin at a Fortune 50 company. Sometimes an employee would be accused of having objectionable material on their computer. We had a lot more Windows machines than Unix/Linux, so I presume a Windows admin had to investigate those. When the machine in question was a Unix/Linux machine, I was one of two people who were assigned to investigate. It had to be someone with technical skills, since these people, usually engineers with some knowledge of the systems, tended to try to hide the material. We'd go into a locked server room and sit at a monitor aimed away from the door so that no one could accidentally be exposed to such material at work. Then we'd look for it. Mostly it was fairly ordinary porn, something I don't like, but hardly traumatizing. A few times it was worse, and one time still haunts me nearly 20 years later. These poor people doing facebook moderation look at that sort of thing constantly all day. I'm surprised they do as well as they do. I just could not handle it in that quantity. It seems that they can't either, and that's totally understandable.
After reading just the descriptions of these videos, I'm shellshocked. I can't even imagine having to watch them. These poor workers -- there's so much suffering in this world...
This article focused mostly on situation at Cognizant facilities in Florida where they have some basic legal labor protections. It only briefly touched on global scope of the problem and mentioned Philippines specifically.
Another article I read portrayed a much abhorrent scenario of Philippine mother’s doing piece meal content sorting from home and the horrific images they are exposed to with no Psych counseling resources to support them.
I am sure their work is also being used to train AI engines to automate this work and eliminate these positions leaving thousands scarred in the process.
This is one job where automation could be a blessing. No humans with a shred of empathy should have to see such images. I can’t stand even hearing about what these moderators are exposed to. I’m learning so much from Readup but it’s so heartbreaking to know the kinds of jobs people have to do to pay for food and a roof over their heads—while they’re caretaking aged parents.
Intense as hell
Everyone should read this. If Facebook was a literal place it would be shut down. In truth it’s much worse than a literal place it should be shut down. I think anyone who reads this or spends a day as a content monitor would agree.
Whoa, that was a wild ride. This is a bit dated but still relevant, I am appalled by these conditions but sadly...not at all surprised. yikes.