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Cognizant, which moderates content for Facebook, is exiting the business completely after the two investigations we published this year https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/30/20940956/cognizant-facebook-content-moderation-exit-business-conditions-investigation?utm_campaign=theverge&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter …
This will affect thousands of employees, and may cause yet more trauma for people who were doing some of the hardest work on the internet. My thoughts are going out to them and their families today.
It will also remove from power some very bad managers who ruthlessly exploited poor people, immigrants, and people of color by micro-managing every aspect of their working lives and left them with PTSD and other long-lasting mental health consequences.
Today I'd like to thank the brave employees who broke their non-disclosure agreements to go on the record and share their stories with the world. Among other things, they got Facebook to promise all their moderators a $3/hour raise this year.
If you'd like to read our stories, here's The Trauma Floor:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/25/18229714/cognizant-facebook-content-moderator-interviews-trauma-working-conditions-arizona …
And here's Bodies in Seats:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/19/18681845/facebook-moderator-interviews-video-trauma-ptsd-cognizant-tampa …
A bit more reporting from me on Cognizant today. The CEO told employees that after laying off 6,000 people they will donate $5 million to efforts to build AI that can perform moderation tasks without human intervention https://www.getrevue.co/profile/caseynewton/issues/a-top-content-moderation-company-gives-up-207833 …
You can follow @CaseyNewton.
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