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I'm glad this post is showing up here. We need to take care of our moderators and community managers - wherever they might be in the world. It's a hard job, bot

I'm glad this post is showing up here. We need to take care of our moderators and community managers - wherever they might be in the world. It's a hard job, both practically and emotionally, and we tend to undervalue workers in (1) non-technical positions (2) in the global south. Meta needs to concede and workers inside Meta need to push for it to do the right thing.

charcircuit 3y ago
>It's a hard job, both practically and emotionally I disagree that internet moderation is an hard job. It is actually quite easy which is why even children are able to do it. It is an attractive job due how you get power over the people you are moderating. This results in most moderators doing it for no compensation at all.
- spicebox 3y ago
  The first paragraph of the article talk about “workers forced to watch videos of murder, rape, and ethnic cleansing”. Idk about you but that doesn’t sound easy to me. I think you’ve thinking of power tripping reddit mods where as this is more people being forced to watched gruesome content that is getting reported to the platform
  - charcircuit 3y ago
    >that doesn’t sound easy to me Then we disagree. I think watching videos is easy work. Gruesome content is typically obvious so that doesn't even require much mental work.
    - Eldt 3y ago
      I believe most people without a screw lose will be negatively affected by such a job, and many of them severely so
      - p3rls 3y ago
        Do you feel the same way about butchers, plumbers, janitors, cops and healthcare workers etc? Because those guys see worse. Almost every day too. Not that I am against paying your jannies, but come on, it's easy stuff compared to anything in the real world. BTW "negatively affected" is such a cowardly way of putting it. What does that mean? Every job will negatively affect you, typically that's why you're getting paid to do it.
        pchangr 3y ago
        I think so, yes, they all get desensitized. Ever talked about death with a doctor?
        aiisjustanif 3y ago
        Yes. Them seeing “worse” is semantics if the outcomes are the same. > it's easy stuff compared to anything in the real world. This is the real world, with real videos of rape, torture, violence, etc. that are moderated. It’s demeaning to say it doesn’t have an implication on the health of humans that perform the job. > BTW "negatively affected" is such a cowardly way of putting it. What does that mean? This HN so let’s speak with some context. Butchers can have serious psychological distress like somatization, anxiety, depression, anger-hostility, burnout, and psychotism [1] [2]. Doctors can also experience the same issues [5]. I believe we should constructive replies that use information from the original article and current research that show content moderators face similar outcomes that do negatively affect them [3] [4] just like butchers, plumbers, janitors, cops and healthcare workers. This should be addressed for any job this happens in. [1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28506017/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28506017/ [2]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269813255_Psychological_Symptom_Profile_of_Butchers_Working_in_Slaughterhouse_and_Retail_Meat_Packing_Business_A_Comparative_Study https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269813255_Psycholog... [3]: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445092 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445092 [4]: https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/content-moderators-pay-a-psychological-toll-to-keep-social-media-clean-we-should-be-helping-them https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/content-moderators-pay-a-p... [5]: https://news.usc.edu/179383/stress-doctors-emergency-room-er-covid-usc-research/ https://news.usc.edu/179383/stress-doctors-emergency-room-er...

charcircuit 3y ago

>It's a hard job, both practically and emotionally I disagree that internet moderation is an hard job. It is actually quite easy which is why even children are able to do it. It is an attractive job due how you get power over the people you are moderating. This results in most moderators doing it for no compensation at all.

spicebox 3y ago
The first paragraph of the article talk about “workers forced to watch videos of murder, rape, and ethnic cleansing”. Idk about you but that doesn’t sound easy to me. I think you’ve thinking of power tripping reddit mods where as this is more people being forced to watched gruesome content that is getting reported to the platform
- charcircuit 3y ago
  >that doesn’t sound easy to me Then we disagree. I think watching videos is easy work. Gruesome content is typically obvious so that doesn't even require much mental work.
  - Eldt 3y ago
    I believe most people without a screw lose will be negatively affected by such a job, and many of them severely so
    - p3rls 3y ago
      Do you feel the same way about butchers, plumbers, janitors, cops and healthcare workers etc? Because those guys see worse. Almost every day too. Not that I am against paying your jannies, but come on, it's easy stuff compared to anything in the real world. BTW "negatively affected" is such a cowardly way of putting it. What does that mean? Every job will negatively affect you, typically that's why you're getting paid to do it.
      - pchangr 3y ago
        I think so, yes, they all get desensitized. Ever talked about death with a doctor?
      - aiisjustanif 3y ago
        Yes. Them seeing “worse” is semantics if the outcomes are the same. > it's easy stuff compared to anything in the real world. This is the real world, with real videos of rape, torture, violence, etc. that are moderated. It’s demeaning to say it doesn’t have an implication on the health of humans that perform the job. > BTW "negatively affected" is such a cowardly way of putting it. What does that mean? This HN so let’s speak with some context. Butchers can have serious psychological distress like somatization, anxiety, depression, anger-hostility, burnout, and psychotism [1] [2]. Doctors can also experience the same issues [5]. I believe we should constructive replies that use information from the original article and current research that show content moderators face similar outcomes that do negatively affect them [3] [4] just like butchers, plumbers, janitors, cops and healthcare workers. This should be addressed for any job this happens in. [1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28506017/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28506017/ [2]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269813255_Psychological_Symptom_Profile_of_Butchers_Working_in_Slaughterhouse_and_Retail_Meat_Packing_Business_A_Comparative_Study https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269813255_Psycholog... [3]: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445092 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445092 [4]: https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/content-moderators-pay-a-psychological-toll-to-keep-social-media-clean-we-should-be-helping-them https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/content-moderators-pay-a-p... [5]: https://news.usc.edu/179383/stress-doctors-emergency-room-er-covid-usc-research/ https://news.usc.edu/179383/stress-doctors-emergency-room-er...