Former employee blasts Face by revealing daily content moderator

Working on Facebook is a dream come true for many young people. Attracted by the possibility of earning a good salary in a modern environment - with a cool head, flexible hours, and decompression areas full of colorful beanbags - aspirants face every possibility of employment simply to be selected by one of the multinational giants of the world. world technology sector. But… Things may not be as beautiful as they seem: In a BBC story report, a young man tells what his life was like as a whistleblower reviewer on the platform.

I watched live videos to check if anyone would kill themselves

Under the fictitious name of Sergio, the boy claims that he and 500 other colleagues around the world had a daily life more like an abusive call center: in his office, each was responsible for evaluating 3, 500 photos, videos and texts reported daily, with an average of one difficult decision every 8.5 seconds. “I watched live videos to check if anyone would kill themselves, ” he tells the BBC report.

Like everyone on the team, Sergio had to memorize a number of publishing rules, as countries deal differently with various issues, and some changes have political and cultural updates. All of this was constantly exercised in content about possible pedophilia, nudity, necrophilia, suicides, murders, harassment, threats, weapons, drugs, and animal violence, published in 10 languages.

All of this in a place where cell phone use is prohibited and breaks for food and toilets are monitored, with high fines and threats of lawsuits against information leakage. "It was like a big call center without the phones. We were there to serve the customer: in this case, Facebook and all its users."

Training the algorithm to be sent away

Sergio detailed some of the work. The reviewers used an alternate Facebook Timeline line to examine random reports with the author's post and name only, without access to the full profile.

The material was then deleted, ignored or sent for review by superiors, especially in cases of pedophilia and suicide, as these involved investigating authorities. What caught the eye was the fact that much of the work was devoted to the artificial intelligence algorithm learning machine.

That is, employees train the computer to make it more agile and accurate in monitoring and recognizing violent content or hate messages. “The more we taught the algorithm, the less we became necessary. Our job was to make our work obsolete, ”he tells the BBC.

Sergio couldn't take it and left Facebook

Young people like Sergio are common in the platform's line of content reviewers, as they often live abroad and turn to the job because they speak other languages ​​and know different cultures, but initially can't find jobs in their area. All this with only a minimum wage. Thus, turnover is high, as many people do not support even 1 year in the post.

I didn't want to become one of those people who appeared in the complaints

"Seeing strong content every day makes you lose sensitivity to certain things. Especially about nudity - there were so many selfies of naked people, close-ups on penises, vaginas and nipples, that pornography has lost its fun, " she told the BBC. The shock of other images that include animal cruelty caused him to drop this daily life and even permanently erase his social network account.

"So as not to get stuck in the bubbles, in the echo chambers where people only hear their own voices and those who agree with them, I decided to isolate myself. I didn't want to become one of those people who came up in the complaints."

Facebook did not answer BBC questions

The company is known for seeking proximity to cores in friction with the platform and often acknowledges its shortcomings, as well as efforts to overcome differences and upgrades in various spheres.

However, sought by BBC Brazil to comment on the revelations made by Sergio, the company only said that "will not comment" these reports. We hope she will talk about it, because Mark Zuckerberg himself recently confirmed hiring 10, 000 new direct and indirect employees for jobs like Sergio's.