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.