In a report published by the Verge, working conditions of a Tampa, Florida Facebook moderation site were revealed to be shockingly poor. The site, one of several moderation sites located throughout North America, is operated by Cognizant, a professional service contracted by Facebook to moderate all content being posted to the massive social networking site. The report says that Facebook signed Cognizant to a two-year $200 million contract in 2017 under mounting public pressure to increase scrutiny of content coming into the site.
Former Cognizant moderators contributed to the report despite signing 14-page nondisclosure agreements when they were hired. One man, Shawn Spaegle, thought he would be joining Cognizant to help businesses on Facebook. In reality, he said, his days as a moderator were spent reading hateful epithets and watching videos depicting profound abuse of animals and children. He was paid $15 an hour, which he described as a significant increase from his previous seasonal work, and quite competitive for the Tampa area.
In a video included in the report, three former employees described quotas that had been placed on them by their employers to reach “accuracy” numbers, as well as extreme emotional and physical strain caused by watching horrifying content. One former contractor suggested mental health screenings for potential moderators saying, “Maybe a psychological test would help because, you know, some people could handle certain things [more] than others and maybe they won’t be affected [by] PTSD or any anxiety … that would come from seeing this stuff over and over again.”
According to the report, a 42-year-old man named Keith Utley passed away of a heart attack in 2018 at the office while working under intense pressure to meet his quotas. Employees described an environment that encouraged them not to talk publicly about the death for fear of bad publicity for Facebook and Cognizant.
Conditions at the office were also described as unsanitary, including the presence of pubic hairs on work surfaces and only one filthy bathroom to serve an 800-person workforce. Cleanups only occurred, they said, when Facebook corporate officials would come for a visit.
In response to the allegations of employee stress and poor working conditions, Cognizant stated, “For our associates who opt to work in content moderation, we are transparent about the work they will perform … They are made aware of the nature of the role before and during the hiring process, and then given extensive and specific training before working on projects.”
