Report: Facebook Has Issues With a Moderation Site in Tampa, Florida

TAMPA -- You may not realize it, but some of your fellow Floridians have the job of policing Facebook. A new report by a technology site claims the job brings low pay and a lot of stress.

Casey Newton of The Verge reports that contract workers at sites in Tampa, Austin and Phoenix have to deal with low pay and high stress. Much of the stress comes from the job of looking at violent and gory content, child pornography and other objectionable and often illegal material.

Newton says the Tampa site, near the airport, has been in operation since 2017 and is run by a company called Cognizant. About a dozen current and former workers spoke to Newton. Three former moderators agreed to break their nondisclosure pacts and describe conditions on the record.

Newton's report quotes these workers and describes conditions at the Tampa site as "filthy". Workers reported finding pubic hair and bodily waste at workstations. Two discrimination cases have been filed with the feds since April. Newton reports workers claim managers laughed off sexual harassment and threats of violence.

Newton describes the story of Keith Utley, a former Facebook moderator working third shift who had a heart attack and died on the job. Newton says the company had no memorials for Utley and barely acknowledged his death.

According to Newton, the site has the lowest rating of any of Facebook's U.S. moderation centers, filtering out just 92 percent of the bad stuff.

We have reached out to Cognizant for comment. Facebook issued a statement regarding Newton's reporting and Utley's passing:

"We work with our content review partners to provide a level of support and compensation that leads the industry. There will inevitably be employee challenges or dissatisfaction that call our commitment to this work and our partners’ employees into question. When the circumstances warrant action on the part of management, we make sure it happens.”

"Our thoughts go out to Keith Utley's family, friends and everyone who worked with him. We go to great lengths to support the people that do this important work, and take any reports that we might not be doing enough incredibly seriously" .

Facebook also offered a link to its policies on contract workers:

https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/05/compensating-and-supporting-contractors/

Follow the link to Newton's story here:


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content