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The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

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Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#11

Post by jstanley »

function_seven wrote: post #8
jstanley wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am okay with 100 good post being automatically removed it if means 1 bad post is also removed. Why? Posts on the internet are pure data. I'm okay with no posts ever being removed.

Posts on the Internet may be pure data, but that doesn't give support for why they should never be removed. IRL analogy: the dog shit that my neighbor throws onto the sidewalk is pure matter. Just atoms and molecules and such. Should it not be removed? EDIT: Not that I agree with the 100 sacrificial removals for each good one. I don't. But the "pure data" argument doesn't work for me.

If you support bad posts being removed from the internet, do you also support bad text being removed from people's hard drives? What about bad thoughts being removed from people's minds?

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#12

Post by radmarshallb »

I would expect that social media websites whose content is largely decided democratically (via votes, shares, or the like) would relegate the majority of this content to a place where it is not seen by many. I would argue that the best way to handle this issue is to let the sites mechanisms deal with the content accordingly and then focus efforts on developing processes that will be able to detect and remove it automatically.

The article implies that they are forcing moderators to view the content at a high clip. Why, so as to get false positives back online as quickly as possible? Maybe moderators should only review content that reaches a certain threshold of complaint, and other content is left as is?

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#13

Post by Jardin »

jstanley wrote: post #11
function_seven wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posts on the Internet may be pure data, but that doesn't give support for why they should never be removed. IRL analogy: the dog shit that my neighbor throws onto the sidewalk is pure matter. Just atoms and molecules and such. Should it not be removed? EDIT: Not that I agree with the 100 sacrificial removals for each good one. I don't. But the "pure data" argument doesn't work for me.

If you support bad posts being removed from the internet, do you also support bad text being removed from people's hard drives? What about bad thoughts being removed from people's minds?

It's an enormous leap in logic to go from things removed from public forums to private hard drives, let alone one's mind. The fact that creating boundaries is a difficult and messy business does not mean they're not worth creating, even with the flaws.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#14

Post by Santosh83 »

Why are we surprised or shocked? Hasn't society always used servants, police, soldiers, miners, loggers, garbage men, wardens, and such to do tasks that the rest of us are loath to do, and to keep certain stuff away from 'civilised' society?

Why would online be different suddenly? Analogues of all the above are needed online too. And somebody who has no other option will be unfortunate enough to fill these roles.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#15

Post by origami777 »

thriftwy wrote: post #6

Abuse departments make Internets not feel like hpme since maybe 2005. I for once will be happier if they stop doing that.

So the bottom of the well can be seen from HN too. I wonder what’s on your hard drive.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#16

Post by dbg31415 »

mbrumlow wrote: post #5

This sort of stuff at one point was handled by hosting providers. It now seems that the internet is "facebook/google" so it is no wonder they are getting the brunt of this sot of work. I can tell you back in the day when I worked for Rackshack I never envied the abuse department. They always looked stressed out. 8k post in a day is just too many for one person. Its not about how much work they are doing, its about th…

> 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.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#17

Post by ghostcluster »

jstanley wrote: post #7
mbrumlow wrote: post #5

This sort of stuff at one point was handled by hosting providers. It now seems that the internet is "facebook/google" so it is no wonder they are getting the brunt of this sot of work. I can tell you back in the day when I worked for Rackshack I never envied the abuse department. They always looked stressed out. 8k post in a day is just too many for one person. Its not about how much work they are doing, its about th…

> I am okay with 100 good post being automatically removed it if means 1 bad post is also removed. Why? Posts on the internet are pure data. I'm okay with no posts ever being removed.

That sounds like a policy that would efficiently erode trust and cause an exodus from your platform.

The platforms are in a tricky position, but I agree this job should pay more with perhaps some regulatory oversight.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#18

Post by DanBC »

thriftwy wrote: post #9
mbrumlow wrote: post #5

This sort of stuff at one point was handled by hosting providers. It now seems that the internet is "facebook/google" so it is no wonder they are getting the brunt of this sot of work. I can tell you back in the day when I worked for Rackshack I never envied the abuse department. They always looked stressed out. 8k post in a day is just too many for one person. Its not about how much work they are doing, its about th…

> However on the internet with regards to what normally amounts to pointless shit that people post on the internet. I am okay with 100 good post being automatically removed it if means 1 bad post is also removed. If you don't like Internet then just get off it! You probably never noticed, but some people have this thing called self-actualization. By removing good posts you step on it with your greasy foot. By removin…

> By removing controversial posts

We're talkng about images of children being raped.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#19

Post by jstanley »

Santosh83 wrote: post #14

Why are we surprised or shocked? Hasn't society always used servants, police, soldiers, miners, loggers, garbage men, wardens, and such to do tasks that the rest of us are loath to do, and to keep certain stuff away from 'civilised' society? Why would online be different suddenly? Analogues of all the above are needed online too. And somebody who has no other option will be unfortunate enough to fill these roles.

> Why would online be different?

Because you don't have to look at anything you don't want. Because it's not bounded by physical space limitations, so everyone can have as much "space" as they want. Because you can travel from any point to any other point almost instantaneously. Because you can be in as many different places simultaneously as you have the capacity to keep track of. Because you can come and go as you please without anyone else even knowing.

The internet is nothing like the physical world.

Re: The Worst Job in Technology: Staring at Human Depravity to Keep It Off Facebook

#20

Post by legulere »

radmarshallb wrote: post #12

I would expect that social media websites whose content is largely decided democratically (via votes, shares, or the like) would relegate the majority of this content to a place where it is not seen by many. I would argue that the best way to handle this issue is to let the sites mechanisms deal with the content accordingly and then focus efforts on developing processes that will be able to detect and remove it autom…

Reddit is such a website and it’s generally consensus there that voting alone does not work.
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