The Moderators (Radio Show)

[RichardCoulter]

As the abuse of people using the internet gets worse and the Online Safety Act is being implemented, the BBC is to start a series on Radio 4 called The Moderators.

It starts tomorrow (11 November) at 13:45, but can be accessed early via BBC Sounds.

It's a fascinating look at what moderators across the world have to put up with and how little some of them get paid in return for incidents that are so awful that they get PTSD.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024w8d

[papa smurf]

oh the irony

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

oh the irony

Indeed.

Moved to the ‘you honestly couldn’t make this stuff up’ forum.

[joglynne]

At least our Moderators can take heart from the fact that they aren't alone.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by papa smurf

oh the irony

Whats ironic?

---------- Post added at 21:16 ---------- Previous post was at 21:15 ----------

Originally Posted by joglynne

At least our Moderators can take heart from the fact that they aren't alone.

Some of the incidents make for very grim listening indeed.

---------- Post added at 21:18 ---------- Previous post was at 21:16 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Moved to the ‘you honestly couldn’t make this stuff up’ forum.

Do you think it's wrong to highlight the terrible things that some people are having to put up with in order to keep others safe or protect them from being exposed to things that give rise to mental health problems?

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Whats ironic?

Nothing really.......

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Dude111

Nothing really.......

I agree, it was a rather strange comment.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Whats ironic?

---------- Post added at 21:16 ---------- Previous post was at 21:15 ----------



Some of the incidents make for very grim listening indeed.

---------- Post added at 21:18 ---------- Previous post was at 21:16 ----------



Do you think it's wrong to highlight the terrible things that some people are having to put up with in order to keep others safe or protect them from being exposed to things that give rise to mental health problems?

They are only having to deal with behaviour like that because of the users! So I think the users need to get a grip and sort themselves out. Then mods wouldn't have to deal with said things.

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Stephen

They are only having to deal with behaviour like that because of the users! So I think the users need to get a grip and sort themselves out. Then mods wouldn't have to deal with said things.

Quite, especially the ones who suffer from a sense of humour bypass

[RichardCoulter]

I think that these moderators can be forgiven for not finding beheadings, the sex abuse of children etc amusing, especially as many only get paid $1 an hour,

Meta etc use AI and also outsource these roles to cut costs and agencies use people from Africa, the Philippines etc.

There's little wonder why complaints haven't been dealt with properly or bizarre decisions are made. Anything so as not to eat into their vast profits. I think that this is why Ofcom will primarily go after the site owners in order to drive up standards for users & moderators alike.

[RichardCoulter]

Today's episode explained how the content that they had been exposed to led some moderators to suffer panic attacks, sleepless nights, nightmares about the content that they had removed etc.

One woman described how, when taking her rubbish out one evening, she heard a baby crying in the block of flats where she lived. This triggered something because she had been removing posts containing child abuse and she became convinced that the baby was crying because it was being abused somewhere in the building.

When she came round she found herself sitting on the kerbside.

It was also said that moderation was not used, as was claimed, to protect users from harmful content, but to appease advertisers who did not want to see their ads placed next to innapropriate content.

They went on to say that they were told that controversial posts led to more traffic, which was good for advertising.

This led to a situation where perfectly normal and innocent posts such as pictures of breastfeeding were taken down due to a violation of their no nudity rule, whilst posts containing offensive content were allowed to stay up.

Hopefully the Online Safety Act will alter the attitude of website owners as it will be them that face fines or imprisonment, not the person who posted the offending material, a parent, a mobile phone company etc.