Facebook moderators break NDAs to expose working conditions

Even if it could (and parallel posters argue it cannot), there is a meta-problem: "Who is allowed to post violent content?". Violence is contextual, and also legality of posting it is contextual. Same goes for other objectionable materials (nudity, extreme ideologies etc.).

Point in case, if all users were subject to the same criteria, the big names in media would quickly get banned. And/or would enter war path with Facebook, accusing it of heavy-handed censorship against the freedom of the press.

Same for reportage of popular events with any degree of nudity. A news piece about a Femen protest, a Pride event, a World Naked Bike Ride, maybe even the No Pants Subway Ride would cause a ban.

Likewise, anybody documenting & discussing historical events, and anybody documenting & discussing present-day uprising, revolutions, civil wars, persecutions, etc., would quickly get banned, essentially sweeping a lot of abuse under the rug. Probably even discussion & documentation of domestic violence would have this problem.

As a lighter aside, cartoonish violence (video games & movies) could also easily fall prey to automated violence take-downs.

All in all, Facebook really really wants to give certain users (mostly press & historians) broad, sweeping exceptions to the general rules.

I know that a lot of people here are probably bothered by the fact that the workplace sounds like impersonal zoo but most of these minimum wage workplaces are along that spectrum. Dirty bathrooms, inflexible policies for everything, etc. are normal. It's just how workplaces like this are. If you want a shitty job that's more personal and flexible then you need to work for a small employer but that can have its downsides too.

Sure the content itself sucks particularly but that's why they pay bigger bucks than everyone else if you can cope then good for you. If you can't you leave. It's just like a call center but more extreme.

Don't mistake me as defending Facebook or Cognizant here, I'm not. I'm just saying this that all things considered this doesn't seem like a particularly bad deal as far a shitty unskilled jobs go. They all have their pros and cons and you gotta find something that works for your personal preferences. I'd take digging ditches over anything with rigid corporate policy about every facet of my job but that's just my preference.

Personally something I think would help a lot would be if they'd over-staff the place and schedule people for few enough hours that they can easily hold another job and make efforts to accommodate people's other commitments. Just doing content moderation every day is probably where a lot of the mental and physical health issues comes from. In my experience the kinds of jobs that really grind you down grind you down a lot less when they're your side gig to some other slightly less shit job.