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by camillomiller 2972 days ago
All the "Facebook" content screeners in Berlin, Germany, are actually employees of a contractor (Arvato-Bertelsmann) who is mostly hiring them through job agencies. They're in charge of deciding what has to be banned according to Facebook Community Guidelines. They get to see gore, suicide videos, racial slurs etc. all the time, with no proper psychological training. They earn minimum wage (around 10$ per hour) and they're completely disposable.

Nonetheless, when Facebook had to face a small content-related crisis in Germany in 2016, that didn't stop Zuckerberg from saying the the company hires teams of hundreds in Germany to stop the spreading of hate content. They don't.

Source: Inside Facebook - Im Netz des Bösen, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2016. (sorry, paywall). http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/inside-facebook-im-netz-d...

3 comments

Thanks for the example. I'd be surprised if content screeners are employed with Facebook anywhere in the world. Most don't make that job for a long time and they probably want to avoid being sued for compensation, I could imagine viewing those videos/images without proper training will lead to long-term psychological issues for many. It's easy if FB can just hire a subcontractor that files for bankruptcy once claims come in.
I’ve always been curious as to what “psychological training” would consist of to prepare for seeing such explicit content day in and day out. Perhaps something similar to military/war psychological practices?
Even in the military there is no such thing as this type of training.

source: was infantry.

Not exactly what you asked for, but similar enough:

https://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2329/

More than "training" it is "assistance" and "psychological support".

Wow, racial slurs. I'm sure that can trigger some kind of trauma on them