Moderation of content on social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other Google products — ought to be a core activity of major companies and not outsourced to third-party operators in abysmal, low-paid work conditions, says a report by New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
The report, “Who Moderates the Social Media Giants? A Call to End Outsourcing”, highlighted that the reason for incendiary online content, especially in developing countries, which has often led to violence and conflict is that the critical function of content moderation has been outsourced to lowly paid, overworked and mentally “second class” employees hired by third-party contractors.
According to the report, 15,000 workers, the overwhelming majority of them employed by third-party vendors, police Facebook’s main platform and its Instagram subsidiary. About 10,000 people scrutinise YouTube and other Google products. Twitter, a much smaller company, has about 1,500 moderators. The report said this number of moderators is inadequate in relation to the overwhelming volume of content that they have to examine.
Employees vs AI systems
“These numbers may sound substantial, but they’re woefully inadequate,” said the report highlighting that enormous volume that these moderators have to assess in terms of billions of posts and uploads that appear on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube every day. On Facebook alone, more than three million items are reported on a daily basis by Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and users as potentially warranting removal.
The report said this degree of volume is a direct result of Facebook’s aggressive business strategy of pursuing global user growth in an effort to please investors and advertisers that are the company’s paying customers. However, unlike other global companies, there is not adequate accountability in relation to the company’s global growth. The report recommended that moderators be treated as full-time employees of the social media giants as they perform a critical core function.
“Increased moderation needs to be accompanied by the presence of a country director and policy staff members in each country where Facebook operates. Responsible global companies have people on the ground where they do business. A social media platform should be no different. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter should have offices in every country where users can access their sites,” it added.
The sensitive nature of the task of content moderation was revealed during the Covid-19 pandemic when thousands of long-distance moderators or reviewers were sent home for social distancing, but Facebook, YouTube and Twitter did not want content review to take place remotely and unsupervised.
Content review and Covid
Consequently, all the three social media companies announced in mid-March that they would temporarily reduce their reliance on human moderation and shift more of the content review burden to their AI-driven technology.
Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg conceded that the pandemic-induced reliance on techonology would lead to mistakes. The company’s algorithms inevitably would “take down some content that was not supposed to be taken down”. The Stern report said Zuckerberg decided to enlist the company’s full-time employees to handle and review “the most sensitive type of content” which is the way forward in content moderation. “…Human involvement should come from people who are full-time employees,” said the report.
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NYU report criticises social media giants for outsourcing content moderation
The report recommended that moderators be treated as full-time employees of the social media giants - Getty Images
The report recommended that moderators be treated as full-time employees of the social media giants - Getty Images
Cites outsourcing as the reason for incendiary content
Moderation of content on social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other Google products — ought to be a core activity of major companies and not outsourced to third-party operators in abysmal, low-paid work conditions, says a report by New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
The report, “Who Moderates the Social Media Giants? A Call to End Outsourcing”, highlighted that the reason for incendiary online content, especially in developing countries, which has often led to violence and conflict is that the critical function of content moderation has been outsourced to lowly paid, overworked and mentally “second class” employees hired by third-party contractors.
According to the report, 15,000 workers, the overwhelming majority of them employed by third-party vendors, police Facebook’s main platform and its Instagram subsidiary. About 10,000 people scrutinise YouTube and other Google products. Twitter, a much smaller company, has about 1,500 moderators. The report said this number of moderators is inadequate in relation to the overwhelming volume of content that they have to examine.
Employees vs AI systems
“These numbers may sound substantial, but they’re woefully inadequate,” said the report highlighting that enormous volume that these moderators have to assess in terms of billions of posts and uploads that appear on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube every day. On Facebook alone, more than three million items are reported on a daily basis by Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and users as potentially warranting removal.
The report said this degree of volume is a direct result of Facebook’s aggressive business strategy of pursuing global user growth in an effort to please investors and advertisers that are the company’s paying customers. However, unlike other global companies, there is not adequate accountability in relation to the company’s global growth. The report recommended that moderators be treated as full-time employees of the social media giants as they perform a critical core function.
“Increased moderation needs to be accompanied by the presence of a country director and policy staff members in each country where Facebook operates. Responsible global companies have people on the ground where they do business. A social media platform should be no different. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter should have offices in every country where users can access their sites,” it added.
The sensitive nature of the task of content moderation was revealed during the Covid-19 pandemic when thousands of long-distance moderators or reviewers were sent home for social distancing, but Facebook, YouTube and Twitter did not want content review to take place remotely and unsupervised.
Content review and Covid
Consequently, all the three social media companies announced in mid-March that they would temporarily reduce their reliance on human moderation and shift more of the content review burden to their AI-driven technology.
Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg conceded that the pandemic-induced reliance on techonology would lead to mistakes. The company’s algorithms inevitably would “take down some content that was not supposed to be taken down”. The Stern report said Zuckerberg decided to enlist the company’s full-time employees to handle and review “the most sensitive type of content” which is the way forward in content moderation. “…Human involvement should come from people who are full-time employees,” said the report.
A letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.
Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.
In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.
We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.
But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.
I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.
A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!
Support Quality JournalismSHARE