Maybe it's easier for them to increase manpower temporarily if it's outsourced? i.e. there's probably going to be more need to moderate Facebook in the run up

Maybe it's easier for them to increase manpower temporarily if it's outsourced? i.e. there's probably going to be more need to moderate Facebook in the run up to the midterms this November, and even more so with actual elections. There's probably a lot of factors that go into determining how many people are needed to moderate and it could be easier/cheaper to hand over staffing to third party firms. That and as you mentioned, localisation.