'I sacrificed my soul': A Facebook moderator's story
Tech Life
BBC
4.3 • 227 Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, an update on the legal battle between Meta and former Facebook moderators in Kenya. One of them, Trevin Brownee, tells our reporter Chris Vallance that reviewing the most extreme content on the internet cost him his "human side." We ask what's the human cost of keeping the internet safe, and what do we owe those who do that work for us? Also this week, the weird and wonderful sounds of quantum computers in action. Professor Winfried Hensinger, who heads the Sussex Ion Quantum Technology Group and is the director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies, explains how they could change the world. And Professor Stephen Brewster, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science, and his colleague Ammar Al-Taie, on the difficulties of getting driverless cars to understand the complex and subtle interactions between cyclists and drivers.
(Photo: Kenyan lawyer, Mercy Mutemi (seated 4th R) along with fellow counsel follow proceedings during a virtual pre-trial consultation with a judge and Meta's legal counsel. She appeared on behalf of 43 former content moderators for Facebook who filed a complaint in Kenya against Meta, Facebook's parent company. Credit: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:41.3 | Thank you. sounds. There's probably another podcast on there that you're absolutely love. I'm so much used to death and seeing death. It became a norm for me. I sacrificed my human |
| 0:48.7 | side for this job. I don't think you can give any more than your soul. Imagine your employer telling you to watch |
| 0:55.7 | the very worst of the internet and then you get laid off. That's what happened to 260 Facebook |
| 1:02.1 | moderators in Kenya. Now they've been cleared to take the tech giant to court. We hear their |
| 1:07.2 | disturbing story and ask what's the human cost of keeping the internet safe? |
| 1:11.7 | And what do we owe those who do that work for us? |
| 1:14.5 | I'm Zoe Kleinman and this is TechLife. Here on Tech Live, we want to get across how technology really affects us. |
| 1:38.1 | Sometimes, often we have positive or uplifting stories to share. |
| 1:42.1 | But Tech has a dark side too, as the interview will play shortly, powerfully demonstrates. |
| 1:47.7 | The story itself is an update on one we've covered here on Tech Live last week, the legal action taken by a group of tech workers in Kenya who moderated content for Facebook before losing their jobs. |
| 1:59.5 | Last week we heard about the legal tussle they're now involved in, |
| 2:02.9 | and we've got the latest on that to bring you. |
| 2:04.9 | But we've also got the voice of one of the people who did that moderation work, |
| 2:09.5 | and an account from them of the extraordinary, life-changing toll |
... |
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