Link to the article: https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/19/18681845/facebook-moderator-interviews-video-trauma-ptsd-cognizant-tampa
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Sorry if this post brought extra discomfort into your life, but I feel obliged to spread awareness about this. I don't normally post, or give a fuck about offending somebody, but this warrants a warning in the title, which you probably already read.
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First off, I will not tl;dr this article myself, but I encourage you to read the full version, or have a look at the coverage of the article by this youtuber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFLyhLr8Mw
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Second: Cognizant is the company that Facebook outsources moderation to, but don't for a second think that they are unaware or this is being done against their will. They are specifically hiring contractor workers to cut on spending, and this is the result.
Third: I have seen people reveling in the suffering of these contractors, because they are the ones who restrict speech on orders of Facebook. Fuck them. It is not the fault of those forced to moderate content uploaded to Facebook with 98% expected accuracy, like they are fucking machines. It is the fault of the progressive cancerous tumor at the very top.
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I've said enough for today. @famousone@xvarnah@interesting@funkmasterrex@guest_
Feel free to @ anyone else you feel deserves to know.
I want to cool off for a bit, because otherwise I will go into another massive rant about this shit.
Ok, so I read it, and I honestly don't understand your complete outrage.
1. The guy who died, died of a heart attack at his desk, and the reporter said he didn't have any medical information. I highly doubt a healthy guy just had a heart attack from looking at bad content. I'm sure there are tons of other businesses where employees have had heart attacks.
2. The guy signed up for the job, and wanted to "help people" by taking bad content off Facebook. So you can't then say that it is messed up to make him look at bad content. It's a job that needs to be done, but if you can't handle, then don't do the job. (I understand that later it says some people were "tricked" into the job, but seriously - they took a job and probably signed a contract. Adults should now not to take a job based on promises - there is a reason why we sign contracts.).
3. Parts of the article try to make it seems like some post-apocalyptic place, but the author even says they get 5 hours of paid leave a pay period which is 3.25 weeks of vacation a year. They even "receive two 15-minute breaks and a 30-minute lunch each day, along with nine minutes per day of “wellness” time that they can use when they feel." That's more time then I accrue and more break time then I get.
4. I get that they described some bad management and dirtiness, and that sucks. But there are crappy people in every job, and it is really so hard to wipe down your desk when you get there? It is not the end of the world, and you can get $15/hour job elsewhere. They are not really enslaved there or anything.
5. I'm not trying to say that the job is a dream, but the author definitely seems to write more emotionally then factually and seems vague on some stuff. The place needs to be improved. But I was expecting wayyyyy worse based on your post and reaction.
I was in a pretty shit mood yesterday, and this just came at the worst time possible. So yeah, I was way more pissed off than normal when writing this.
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The thing about the first one is that they tried to hide the information, outright lying to people in the process, and nothing happened. The disposability of people is the thing that pissed me off. It's honestly the combination of all of this, lying to people to get them into a job, non-disclosure agreements to shut them up about the horrible working conditions, and the futility of the work itself, since even reporting the content to the police did pretty much nothing. And then to see people who I thought were on my side of the free speech argument gloating about this shit...
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Just had a bad day, that's all.
Tbh I've heard mentions of this in passing, mostly in relation to how large companies like Facebook abuse section 230 by policing their content, openly admitting they can and do police all of their content, and then pretending they can't police their content to avoid being held responsible for their actions.
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The whole thing sounds very poorly operated overall.
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I will say They offer many many privileges for working for them. And not everything stated in the article sounds entirely out of place for many work environments unfortunately. Also I'm not sure why they keep bringing up the Alligator-- doesn't sound like he's bothering anyone and if everyone knows he's there and doesn't use the pond then that just sounds like florida
That said, most of this does not seem to balance out what they put their employees through on a regular basis. Inconsistency, infestation, lack of standards, lack of cleanliness, lack of management, harassment, mockery, lack of access to proper counselling on-site- which should be a number 1 priority. Even just hearing about the videos is enough to make my skin crawl and incite me to violence. This is imagery on par with and probably sometimes worse than a war-zone, and the company needs to conduct itself with that in mind. It also sounds like they definitely pulled a bait and switch on some of them, which is disgusting when it comes to the kind of content they're being asked to deal with.
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Facebook, of course, has never been anything short of completely corrupt since its inception, and they seem to consistently be getting worse.
@vitklim I'm not sure what else to say about it at the moment I'm afraid. The whole thing left me extremely tired. But you should take some comfort in knowing word is getting around. Whether it will result in change is hard to say, but at least their attempt to sweep it all under the rug backfired yet again.
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I do second what changetheworld said and I really hope you've had a better day today at least
.
Sorry if this post brought extra discomfort into your life, but I feel obliged to spread awareness about this. I don't normally post, or give a fuck about offending somebody, but this warrants a warning in the title, which you probably already read.
.
First off, I will not tl;dr this article myself, but I encourage you to read the full version, or have a look at the coverage of the article by this youtuber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiFLyhLr8Mw
.
Second: Cognizant is the company that Facebook outsources moderation to, but don't for a second think that they are unaware or this is being done against their will. They are specifically hiring contractor workers to cut on spending, and this is the result.
.
I've said enough for today. @famousone @xvarnah @interesting @funkmasterrex @guest_
Feel free to @ anyone else you feel deserves to know.
I want to cool off for a bit, because otherwise I will go into another massive rant about this shit.
1. The guy who died, died of a heart attack at his desk, and the reporter said he didn't have any medical information. I highly doubt a healthy guy just had a heart attack from looking at bad content. I'm sure there are tons of other businesses where employees have had heart attacks.
2. The guy signed up for the job, and wanted to "help people" by taking bad content off Facebook. So you can't then say that it is messed up to make him look at bad content. It's a job that needs to be done, but if you can't handle, then don't do the job. (I understand that later it says some people were "tricked" into the job, but seriously - they took a job and probably signed a contract. Adults should now not to take a job based on promises - there is a reason why we sign contracts.).
4. I get that they described some bad management and dirtiness, and that sucks. But there are crappy people in every job, and it is really so hard to wipe down your desk when you get there? It is not the end of the world, and you can get $15/hour job elsewhere. They are not really enslaved there or anything.
5. I'm not trying to say that the job is a dream, but the author definitely seems to write more emotionally then factually and seems vague on some stuff. The place needs to be improved. But I was expecting wayyyyy worse based on your post and reaction.
.
The thing about the first one is that they tried to hide the information, outright lying to people in the process, and nothing happened. The disposability of people is the thing that pissed me off. It's honestly the combination of all of this, lying to people to get them into a job, non-disclosure agreements to shut them up about the horrible working conditions, and the futility of the work itself, since even reporting the content to the police did pretty much nothing. And then to see people who I thought were on my side of the free speech argument gloating about this shit...
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Just had a bad day, that's all.
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The whole thing sounds very poorly operated overall.
'
I will say They offer many many privileges for working for them. And not everything stated in the article sounds entirely out of place for many work environments unfortunately. Also I'm not sure why they keep bringing up the Alligator-- doesn't sound like he's bothering anyone and if everyone knows he's there and doesn't use the pond then that just sounds like florida
'
Facebook, of course, has never been anything short of completely corrupt since its inception, and they seem to consistently be getting worse.
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I do second what changetheworld said and I really hope you've had a better day today at least