“The lawsuit offers a rare look into a little-known field of digital work known as content moderation. Even technology that seems to exist only as data on a server rests on tedious and potentially dangerous human labor. Although algorithms and artificial intelligence have helped streamline the process of moderation, most technology companies that host user-generated content employ moderators like Soto to screen video, text, and images, to see if they violate company guidelines. But the labor of content moderators is pretty much invisible, since it manifests not in flashy new features or viral videos but in a lack of filth and abuse. Often, the moderators are workers in developing countries, like the Philippines or India, or low-paid contractors in the United States. There’s no reliable figure for how many people are employed in this line of work, but it’s certainly in the tens of thousands. Content moderators are recent college graduates and stay-at-home mothers, remote workers in Morocco and employees sitting in giant outsourcing companies in Manila.”
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