He used to work in the censorship division of one of the larger social media organisations.
He was an analyst in a little known, and probably little understood, part of the organisation. His work took in the matter of widespread global technical issues, analysing the work of activists and researchers, and examining outspoken political comment and dissent. He would look at flagged examples of suppressed content, monitoring the growing trend of internet shutdowns and the takedown of inappropriate social media content. He looked for cases where users are being disproportionately impacted. He would determine whether posts relating to unrest are being fully acknowledged, without suppression. Over all, he needed to determine whether or not people had fare access to information. He would search for examples where there is evidence of disproportionate impact as a result of content takedowns. All this, together with abiding by the rules set out for the international freedom of expression. In fact, all such issues that affect users around the world.
This was the good stuff.
Beyond these considerations were the really bad items. All day long he had to trawl through ugly media content that promoted hate, based on people’s race, religion, or disabilities. He needed to search for content that endorses violence in the form of material that depicted unacceptable forms of pornography together with either real or simulated violence. In fact, anything that by default, advocates deplorable behaviour.
In other words, he was looking at the dregs of society. He would have to view flagged images and content, then make a judgement as to whether what he was looking at violated the media platform’s laid down policies and standards. He would spend hours every day, every week, for months, looking at really dreadful stuff. It had been an ongoing litany of unimaginable filth. It was his remit to undergo a never-ending barrage of disgusting material.
There was an open plan room full of staff doing this self-same thing. None of them lasted too long in their role. The turnover of operators was high. He had heard that there had been many cases of employees having breakdowns, some cases where they had gone completely over the edge, together with a number of suicides. Of course, these things were never talked about.
He had lasted about nine months before he got out. He found a far more fulfilling job as one of a number of grounds-workers at the district asylum. He enjoyed the work and he was able to catch up with a lot of his old workmates.