Moderating online spaces

Not cycling, but still important.

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Iris
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Moderating online spaces

Post by Iris » 5 years ago

If you're interested in an in-depth look at the issues around moderation of online spaces, I'd recommend this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m ... e-cleaners

It's a wide-ranging and thoughtful review, covering the issues around moderation of political, sexual and violent content. There are some eye-opening interviews with people who have moderated for the internet giants - apparently a lot of them are based in and around Manila - and some very insightful contributions from people who used to be close to the top of Google and Facebook.

There were also a number of interviews with people who use the internet to promote messages, from an NGO in London publicising the impact of the war in Syria on the Syrians to someone trying to tell the story of the Rohingya to an alt-right fascist in California.

The key message for me was first of all that moderation is an utterly soul-destroying job, and second that none of the internet companies have got it right - and perhaps they can't get it right. They are geeks first and foremost, who are gradually having to wake up to the fact that they are also publishers and so have some responsibility for the content they promote.
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Rutabaga
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Re: Moderating online spaces

Post by Rutabaga » 5 years ago

I saw that programme (Storyville strand programmes are always excellent). The overriding lesson I took from it was how this "soul-destroying job" has been outsourced to people who live in poverty - one woman said it was a choice between being a "cleaner" (the euphemism of choice for "moderator") or sifting through garbage (a horribly neat parallel). Many participants in the programme could not be identified, as they were terrified of the power their employers hold over them - employers who are not the likes of Google and FB but third-party companies that mask the responsibility that you rightly say the "geeks" deny. For some "cleaners" the job is so soul-destroying that it literally kills them, like the poor man who moderated so many live streams of people self-harming that he eventually hanged himself.
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