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Facebook Moderators' Burdens: Stress; Burnout; Etc.

James_H

And I like to roam the land
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May 18, 2002
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Report: Facebook Moderators Are Routinely High and Joke About Suicide to Cope With Job

Randy told The Verge that he doesn’t believe that 9/11 was a terrorist attack after reviewing enough conspiracy theory videos that tried to make that case. One moderator claimed that a quality assurance worker was trying to convince his colleagues that the earth was flat. Another Cognizant employee reportedly referred to the holocaust as “the Holohoax.”

“People really started to believe these posts they were supposed to be moderating,” a moderator told The Verge. “They were saying, ‘Oh gosh, they weren’t really there. Look at this CNN video of [Parkland shooting survivor] David Hogg—he’s too old to be in school.’ People started Googling things instead of doing their jobs and looking into conspiracy theories about them. We were like, ‘Guys, no, this is the crazy stuff we’re supposed to be moderating. What are you doing?’”
 
I can't imagine what near-constant exposure to regular Facebook posts would do to a person psychologically.
Well, it's not just the regular ones. These people are underpaid and have to constantly look at child porn, gore, and conspiracy videos. It's gonna do something to your head.
 
Well, it's not just the regular ones. These people are underpaid and have to constantly look at child porn, gore, and conspiracy videos. It's gonna do something to your head.

I meant to say, I can't imagine what near-constant exposure to regular Facebook posts would do to a person psychologically (let alone the grim ones).
 
The firm contracted to provide content moderation for Facebook has announced it's going to discontinue this work when its current contract ends.
The Firm That Deletes Gore and Child Porn on Facebook Just Quit

Remember when a Facebook moderator died at his desk? The contractor he worked for is saying "bye" to Facebook.

Moderating content for Facebook is traumatic. That’s not an opinion — it’s a fact.

Thousands of people spend their work days deciding whether posts violate Facebook’s content policies. And a growing number have spoken to the media about the terrible toll of seeing countless images and videos depicting violence, sex abuse, child pornography, and torture. In March 2018, one moderator in Tampa, Florida, actually died right at his desk.

That man, Keith Utley, was employed by a firm called Cognizant, which reportedly signed a two-year, $200 million contract with Facebook to keep the platform free of objectionable content — and, in a huge blow to Facebook’s moderation strategy, it just announced it’ll cut ties with the social media company when that contract runs out.

“We have determined that certain content work in our digital operations practice is not in line with our strategic vision for the company, and we intend to exit this work over time,” Cognizant told BBC News. “This work is largely focused on determining whether certain content violates client standards — and can involve objectionable materials.” ...
FULL STORY: https://futurism.com/facebook-moderation-firm-just-quit
 
Maybe it's some variation on Stockholm Syndrome.
 
Maybe it's some variation on Stockholm Syndrome.

I'm not sure what you may mean by that ... Can you elaborate on it a bit more?

Classic Stockholm Syndrome involves the emergence of some sense of common interest or concern by hostages for their captors. Metaphorically speaking - who is it you see as the hostages and who is it you see as the negative parties with whom they come to "relate"?
 
I am not @SkepticalX nor do I play them on TV!

My guess is that the "baddies" are the ?fake news items and that, over time you develop a sympathy for the poor wee things - they are only doing what they've been programmed to do and so on.

I speak as someone who used to speak nicely to stones before clearing them from a field!
 
I am puzzled, how can you die watching something?

That's what I was wondering, I've heard of gamers dying after days-long sessions, but what was he doing to die at work? I appreciate it's a traumatic job, but there must be more to it than that (like a heart condition or something).
 
I completely agree with that. There's no way to reliably train AI's to recognize or deal with innuendo, double-talk, or constantly shifting jargon, much less semantic subtleties.

Suddenly lost for words.

:)
 
Josef Goebbels supposedly said "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth." Perhaps these moderators are unwitting victims of this - they see the fake news so often, they themselves start to believe it or , at least, become desensitized to it. I was discussing this with Bigfoot just the other day. ;)
 
I don't see why face book mods should suddenly start believing fake news because of their jobs.

Surely they know the kind of stuff they will be exposed to. After all, they are volunteers, not conscripts.

I think the term 'fake news ' is being used out of context here.
 
The negative effects of being a Facebook mod are substantiated to the extent of causing a multi-million dollar settlement.
Facebook to pay moderators $52M for psychological damages

Facebook has agreed to pay $52 million to its content moderators whose job has them viewing graphic and disturbing posts and videos on its platforms.

In a 2018 lawsuit, third-party contractors for the company said that Facebook failed to properly protect them against severe psychological and other injuries that can result from repeated exposure to graphic material such as child sexual abuse, beheadings, terrorism, animal cruelty and other disturbing images.

The settlement grants U.S. moderators who were part of the class action lawsuit $1,000 each. Those who have been diagnosed with conditions related to their work will be able to get medical treatment and damages of up to $50,000, according to the preliminary settlement filed in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Mateo. ...

SOURCE: https://apnews.com/faa5df03e40f6b9736225e49d8ceaf19
 
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