Contract workers for Meta, TikTok, Google, and more are forming a global group to fight for better working conditions.
Try Reddit also, the moderators there don't even get paid :(.
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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That's their fault.
The pressure to review thousands of horrific videos each day – beheadings, child abuse, torture – takes a devastating toll on our mental health
What could be a solution for dealing with that? I wouldn't want to be exposed to that type of content even if I was paid to do so and had access to health support to deal with the aftermath every time.
Whilst automated tools can help on this, there is a heckton of human labour to be done in training those tools, or in reviewing moderation decisions that require a human's eye. I think that in a world where we can't eradicate that need, the least we can do is ensure that people are paid well, in non-exploitative conditions, with additional support to cope.
Actually securing these things in a way that's more than just lipservice is part of that battle— I remember a harrowing article a while back about content moderators in Kenya, working for Sama, which was contracted to work for Facebook. There were so many layers of exploitation in that situation that it made me sick. If the "mental health support" you have access to is an on-site therapist who guilt trips you into going back to work asap, and you're so hurried and stressed that you don't have time to even take a breather after seeing something rough — conditions like that are going to cause a disproportionate amount of preventable human harm.
Even if we can't solve this problem entirely, there's so much needless harm being done, and that's part of what this fight is about now.
On paper, it's one of the uses for AI image recognition. It could reduce the amount that needs human review drastically.
In reality, Youtube's partially automated system (to my knowledge the most robust one around) regularly flags highly stylized videogame violence as if it is real gore. It also has some very dumb workarounds like simply putting the violence more than 30 seconds into the video (which has concerning implications for its ability at filtering real gore).
Unions on a global scale. A very interesting development.
I'm for it.
Yet, cynical me cannot help but wonder how the big platforms will react. How they'll try to quash it, undoubtedly.
Not saying I'm pessimistic though!
I sincerely hope they just die. More likely they will just get rid of content moderation entirely.
One I am all for