Facebook moderator dies after viewing horrific videos, others share disturbing incidents: report

A dozen current and former Facebook moderators described a
filth-ridden, emotionally disturbing, high-stress work environment
where they received an extreme amount of pressure to accurately
moderate the never-ending firehose of despicable hate speech,
graphic violence against humans and animals, and child pornography
on the social network — often leaving them with post-traumatic
stress disorder and related conditions.

The contractors, part of Facebook’s army of about 15,000 content
moderators worldwide, work in Tampa, Fla., for a company called
Cognizant, and receive about $28,000 per year to police the site as
part of the Mark Zuckerberg-led company’s two-year, $200 million
contract with the tech giant, according to a report in The Verge.
The New Jersey-based Cognizant has a market capitalization of $34.6
billion and is one of several large firms that provide digital
moderation services to Silicon Valley players.

The ubiquitous social network, which has faced criticism from
all corners for its content moderation mistakes and for the massive
rulebook that guides moderators, relies on contract labor for most
content policing. Moderators are expected to maintain a 95 to 98
percent accuracy rate while reviewing more than 1,000 posts per
week to see if they violate Facebook’s community standards.

Keith Utley, a former Coast Guard lieutenant commander who
worked an overnight shift moderating content at one of Cognizant’s
sites in Tampa, Fla., faced that same pressure to meet the accuracy
target in removing content that’s in violation.

The night of March 9, 2018, Utley slumped over at this desk. His
colleagues reportedly performed CPR, but by the time the ambulance
arrived at the office complex, which is set back from the main
road, the 42-year-old had already begun to turn blue. According to
the tech news site, he died shortly thereafter at the hospital,
leaving behind a wife and two daughters.

“The stress they put on him — it’s unworldly,” one of Utley’s
managers told The Verge. “I did a lot of coaching. I spent some
time talking with him about things he was having issues seeing. And
he was always worried about getting fired.”

Utley’s death is one of several horror stories current and
former moderators shared with The Verge; at least three broke their
non-disclosure agreements in order to do so.

At the site in Tampa, on top of all the disturbing
video-watching, workers reportedly faced two separate bed bug
infestations, saw “bodily waste” regularly at workstations,
witnessed menstrual blood and feces smeared on bathroom walls, saw
numerous verbal and physical altercations break out, witnessed an
employee threaten to “shoot up the building” in a group chat, and
described an atmosphere that was like a “sweatshop.”

Another moderator who was interviewed by The Verge, 23-year-old
Shawn Speagle, made $15 per hour moderating between 100 and 200
posts per day. Some of what he told the Verge he had to watch:
puppies being thrown into a raging river, teenagers smashing an
iguana onto the ground to kill it, putting lit fireworks into dogs’
mouths and chopping off a cat’s face with a hatchet.

“The iguana was screaming and crying,” Speagle said, adding that
he used to volunteer at animal shelters. “And they didn’t stop
until the thing was a bloody pulp.”

The iguana post was allowed to remain on Facebook.

“Under the policy, the video was allowed to remain on Facebook.
A manager told him that by leaving the video online, authorities
would be able to catch the perpetrators.”

Utterly disgusting and inhumane policy on facebook’s part.

Continuing to display abject animal cruelty only lowers the bar
for would-be imitators.

There have also been shown to be strong links between animal
cruelty and human cruelty, including murder.

To be clear, the ONLY proper way to handle this is to
immediately take it down and file a report with the relevant police
agencies. Expecting the local police agencies to maintain the same
staff of 30,000 people to monitor FB posts for crime is stupidly
absurd.

This is at best depraved indifference on FB’s part, and more
likely a deliberate dishonest rationalization to keep posted
something extreme that will get lots of ‘views’ and
‘engagement’.

This is only one of millions of examples, including cooperating
with the Russian / Cambridge Analytica / etc groups to corrupt
elections in the US, England, and elsewhere.

Simply put, Facebook is deliberately poisoning society for
profit, and far worse than any tobacco company ever did.

They need to be shut down. Now. There are far better ways to do
everything FB claims to do.

FB vigorously opposes this.

However, with 1) a staff of 30K++ screeners, 2) who knows how
many moderators, etc, 3) many layers of management decisions and
policy on what is and is not allowed on the platform and the
reasons why/why not, 4) extensive human & algorithmic promotion and
demotion of content, they are absolutely actively editing their
site. This is arguably even more extensive editing than from any
print or media organization.

The only reason FB wants to avoid the “editing” label is so they
can edit as they please. I.e., they want to edit for ‘engagement’
and profit, not for social responsibility.

This cannot remain out of control without consequences, which we
are already seeing in society.

“For our associates who opt to work in content moderation, we
are transparent about the work they will perform,” a Cognizant
spokesman told The Verge. “They are made aware of the nature of the
role before and during the hiring process, and then given extensive
and specific training before working on projects.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of
the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill on April 10,
2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of
the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill on April 10,
2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
A different group of content moderators employed by Cognizant in
Phoenix, Ariz., reported PTSD-like symptoms in February from the
horrifying images and fringe content they viewed as part of their
work. Regardless of how Cognizant responds to moderators’
complaints, Facebook will continue to use a combination of
artificial intelligence and human-powered judgment to distinguish
between what is and is not allowed on its platform.

“I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to work there,” KC Hopkinson, an
attorney who represents several former and current Cognizant
employees, told the tech news site. “It’s a terrible, terrible
environment.”

The attorney also said that when her clients have reported
incidents to Cognizant’s human resources department, they’ve been
ignored or retaliated against. (“We take allegations such as this
very seriously,” a company spokesman told The Verge. “Cognizant
strives to create a safe and empowering workplace.”)

In the past, Facebook has said the working conditions described
at these sites do not reflect the daily lives of the majority of
its workers. The tech giant has said that it plans to launch a new
audit system for its contractor sites this year and in May
announced that it will raise contractor wages by $3 per hour and
make on-site counselors available during all hours of
operation.