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> Facebook will have 7,500 content reviewers by the end of December, up from 4,500, and it plans to double the number of employees and contractors who handle sa

> Facebook will have 7,500 content reviewers by the end of December, up from 4,500, and it plans to double the number of employees and contractors who handle safety and security issues to 20,000 by the end of 2018. Seems like the bulk of these roles are contract. "$24/hour" was mentioned in the article. Probably no health benefits. Probably no counseling. 251 working days * 8 hours * $24 = $48,192. Less taxes. Less sick days. Safe to assume these workers aren't all going to work out of the main office in SF. Seems like Facebook would have to set up some sort of work from home system, like people who transcribe medical records, or some sort of off-shore system, to make this work for workers. But... spreading out the people who do this work is likely to increase security risks that sensitive data will be shared, and reduce workers ability to find comfort with peers. No way to look at this where automation isn't going to be better.

spaceseaman 9y ago
This definitely seems like a good place for either regulation or unionization. Unionization would likely be difficult though due to the low barrier of entry for the job - artificial barriers would have to be created by the union and those break down pretty easily due to human factors (see Walmart). I'm all for regulation in this case. Require that folks who review content for illegal posts be limited in the amount of content they review in a weekday, must have certain benefits like mental health counseling, and get some vacation / sabbatical from the work. Risks might be reduced innovation in the field, but the big boys like Facebook and Google have already found excellent ways to snuff out their competition within the existing market.
- adventured 9y ago
  Unionization doesn't work very well when you can trivially outsource the job/task. It'd be necessary to entirely remake the US economy, because you'd have to enable union powers that could directly control all actions by the parent corporation, including setting up overseas / outsourcing.
jpatokal 9y ago
If those content reviewers are subcontracted out to vendors in the Philippines or India, they'll be earning a lot less than $50k/year. The average call center agent in Manila earns under US$4k.
megamindbrian2 9y ago
I am optimistic about human in the middle. I imagine a large grid of small thumbnails and the Google Captcha style "Choose the pictures that are not gruesome" (i.e. differentiating between violence, a video game, and a red scarf). Many reports could be resolved quickly this way. I would be interested in a more proactive solution that is well documented publicly so that we can apply the tech to blogs/news.

spaceseaman 9y ago

This definitely seems like a good place for either regulation or unionization. Unionization would likely be difficult though due to the low barrier of entry for the job - artificial barriers would have to be created by the union and those break down pretty easily due to human factors (see Walmart). I'm all for regulation in this case. Require that folks who review content for illegal posts be limited in the amount of content they review in a weekday, must have certain benefits like mental health counseling, and get some vacation / sabbatical from the work. Risks might be reduced innovation in the field, but the big boys like Facebook and Google have already found excellent ways to snuff out their competition within the existing market.

adventured 9y ago
Unionization doesn't work very well when you can trivially outsource the job/task. It'd be necessary to entirely remake the US economy, because you'd have to enable union powers that could directly control all actions by the parent corporation, including setting up overseas / outsourcing.

jpatokal 9y ago

If those content reviewers are subcontracted out to vendors in the Philippines or India, they'll be earning a lot less than $50k/year. The average call center agent in Manila earns under US$4k.

megamindbrian2 9y ago

I am optimistic about human in the middle. I imagine a large grid of small thumbnails and the Google Captcha style "Choose the pictures that are not gruesome" (i.e. differentiating between violence, a video game, and a red scarf). Many reports could be resolved quickly this way. I would be interested in a more proactive solution that is well documented publicly so that we can apply the tech to blogs/news.