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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

#21

Post by withdavidli »

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?

You sound like things are in absolutes, black and white, it’s not.

Would you remove child porn off the internet? How about a rape victim’s photos and videos? If you could delete something that would cause people to commit suicide, would you?

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

#22

Post by spaceseaman »

dbg31415 wrote: post #16
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 s…

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.

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

#23

Post by wlesieutre »

legulere wrote: post #20
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.

Subreddits are pretty heavily moderated via the "report" buttons. Moderators are basically whatever community member created the community plus the other volunteer users that they picked, and if you have a problem with a subreddit's moderation the usual response is "It's my sub, you can leave."

I'm not sure how that would work for facebook.

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

#24

Post by harryf »

Waterluvian wrote: post #4

I found this juxtaposition unsettling: “I was watching the content of deranged psychos in the woods somewhere who don’t have a conscience for the texture or feel of human connection,” "...If the managers noticed a few minutes of inactivity, they would ping him on workplace messaging tool Slack to ask why he wasn’t working." The texture of human connection is severely diminished when you are managing what is essential…

Likewise this part...

> Whisper no longer employs U.S.-based moderators. It uses a team in the Philippines along with machine-learning technology.

Great that they moved the problem to a place with even fewer protections for workers.

The underlying issue is seeing content moderation purely as cost that should be minimized. Taking YouTube Kids for example I'm sure you could sell parents products based around moderated content that educates their children, supports their morals and beliefs etc. i.e. find ways to generate enough income with moderated content to treat people fairly.

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

#26

Post by octothorpes »

withdavidli wrote: post #21
jstanley wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You sound like things are in absolutes, black and white, it’s not. Would you remove child porn off the internet? How about a rape victim’s photos and videos? If you could delete something that would cause people to commit suicide, would you?

Why remove when you can show only to specific audiences, ie. police etc. that can do something more than delete the content.

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

#27

Post by rpmcmurphy »

The internet really is an incredible cesspool. It would be interesting to see how the public reacted if YouTube and Facebook turned off their content moderation for a week. It would make the goatse meme look like a Sunday school picnic.

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

#28

Post by [deleted] »

harryf wrote: post #24
Waterluvian wrote: post #4

I found this juxtaposition unsettling: “I was watching the content of deranged psychos in the woods somewhere who don’t have a conscience for the texture or feel of human connection,” "...If the managers noticed a few minutes of inactivity, they would ping him on workplace messaging tool Slack to ask why he wasn’t working." The texture of human connection is severely diminished when you are managing what is essential…

Likewise this part... > Whisper no longer employs U.S.-based moderators. It uses a team in the Philippines along with machine-learning technology. Great that they moved the problem to a place with even fewer protections for workers. The underlying issue is seeing content moderation purely as cost that should be minimized. Taking YouTube Kids for example I'm sure you could sell parents products based around moderated…

[deleted]

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

#29

Post by ben_w »

wlesieutre wrote: post #23
legulere wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Subreddits are pretty heavily moderated via the "report" buttons. Moderators are basically whatever community member created the community plus the other volunteer users that they picked, and if you have a problem with a subreddit's moderation the usual response is "It's my sub, you can leave." I'm not sure how that would work for facebook.

Reddit recently deleted a whole bunch of subreddits because they decided that wasn’t good enough.

Anecdotally, I know someone who was interested in one of those topics (zoophilia), who thought the subreddit in question was “a dumpster fire” yet was still upset about it being banned.

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

#30

Post by ascorbic »

harryf wrote: post #24
Waterluvian wrote: post #4

I found this juxtaposition unsettling: “I was watching the content of deranged psychos in the woods somewhere who don’t have a conscience for the texture or feel of human connection,” "...If the managers noticed a few minutes of inactivity, they would ping him on workplace messaging tool Slack to ask why he wasn’t working." The texture of human connection is severely diminished when you are managing what is essential…

Likewise this part... > Whisper no longer employs U.S.-based moderators. It uses a team in the Philippines along with machine-learning technology. Great that they moved the problem to a place with even fewer protections for workers. The underlying issue is seeing content moderation purely as cost that should be minimized. Taking YouTube Kids for example I'm sure you could sell parents products based around moderated…

Toca Boca tried this with their Toca TV service, but it was discontinued because subscription rates were too low. If anyone could do it it should be them, having proven that it is possible to charge for kids' apps with no in app purchases. https://tocaboca.com/press-post/toca-tv-update/
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