not worth anyone's sacrifice

I have a persistently uncomfortable relationship with social media.

But, usually, I can justify using it because it has become the only reliable medium to maintain some connections in recent times. And, if I value those connections enough, the cost of not maintaining that link outweighs my discomfort.

But when I was listening to a recent segment on BBC’s Tech Life, my system where I weighed the benefits vs the sources of my discomfort were called into question.

(Photo: Kenyan lawyer, Mercy Mutemi (seated 4th R) along with fellow counsel follow proceedings during a virtual pre-trial consultation with a judge and Meta’s legal counsel. She appeared on behalf of 43 former content moderators for Facebook who filed a complaint in Kenya against Meta, Facebook’s parent company. Credit: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)

‘I sacrificed my soul’: A Facebook moderator’s story

This week, an update on the legal battle between Meta and former Facebook moderators in Kenya. One of them, Trevin Brownee, tells our reporter Chris Vallance that reviewing the most extreme content on the internet cost him his “human side.” We ask what’s the human cost of keeping the internet safe, and what do we owe those who do that work for us?

LINK: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct4tpq

Yes, on some level, I do understand that someone needs to review the kinds of content described in that story — I am not writing the examples out here; they are simply too horrible — but it didn’t occur to me that Facebook was hiring out the work to underpaid, undersupported, third party contractors, in places where a pittance in compensation would be acceptable.

All of the FOMO and YOLO and such runs on a platform that directly hires people to be mentally abused as their core job. Then, the platform just hangs them out to dry.

I feel like I have seen something that I cannot unsee. When I go to open social media, all I can hear is that interviewee talking about becoming desensitized to dealing with dehumanizing content in order to make a living.

I don’t know if this is any different from child labor making sneakers or livestock being crammed into factory farms. The fact that those things happened (past tense) while content moderators will be abused (future tense) seems to make this sit differently for me. And, maybe it shouldn’t.

It makes it feel like my actions will lead to someone becoming scarred. And, that makes me pause.

It feels as though the most horrific parts of Huxley’s Brave New World has been implemented by Meta/Facebook with Epsilon Contractors, in countries with no real track record in protecting the human rights of workers, chipping away at their humanity so people can continue to meme at each other.