Tuesday, May 09, 2017



Censorship can hurt the censors

I take the libertarian view that there should in general be no censorship.  If you don't like it, don't watch it.  There are exceptions to every rule however so I think Muslim hate speech should be blocked.  It clearly does inspire bloodthirsty attacks on non-Muslims -- JR

Facebook announced Wednesday that it will hire an additional 3,000 “content moderators” around the world in a bid to keep the worst of the web off its social media platform. That’s on top of the existing 4,500 employees who already work to identify hate speech, pornography, child exploitation and other violent and disturbing acts.

The move follows a string of gruesome episodes that were lifestreamed on Facebook, including a father in Thailand who hanged his 11-month-old baby girl before killing himself. The video lingered on the site for roughly 24 hours before it was finally removed.

“This is important,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post announcing the move. “Just last week, we got a report that someone on Live was considering suicide. We immediately reached out to law enforcement, and they were able to prevent him from hurting himself. In other cases, we weren’t so fortunate.”

But in trying to keep the web’s underbelly at bay, Facebook and other social media companies are subjecting a growing group of workers to trauma and emotional distress. Critics say the job can be debilitating, leaving moderators with “permanent videos in their heads” and a need to stay away from everyday items-turned-potential triggers, like knives and computers.

“They’re exposed to the worst things you can imagine,” said Ben Wells, a lawyer who is representing two former Microsoft moderators who claim they developed post-traumatic stress disorder. “If you can imagine the worst person in the world and what they would want to watch, that’s what they’re exposed to, whether it’s on a daily basis or very frequently. And some of this stuff you just cannot un-see and there are things you can’t get rid of. It can be debilitating.”

SOURCE


3 comments:

Bird of Paradise said...

Liberals are finding there is a backlash effect for all what they do and i hope it hurts them

Stan B said...

I have a dear friend who was in the Army when she was 20 years old, handed a camera and told "you're the fatality event photographer." No training, no psych workup, nothing. For two years, she was first on the scene of fatal accidents (helicopter crashes, vehicle accidents, violent crimes on bases, training accidents) and was ordered to "document" the scene. Bodies, body parts, blood - none of it "prettied up" at all.

That was 30 years ago. She suffers PTSD on a daily basis. Every news report, every moment brings unexpected triggers back to those horrific scenes.

Does everyone with that job suffer like she did? No, I'm sure of it. I'm sure there are people who can deal with these images, just like there are people who can deal with the images and situations that facebook is trying to scrub. The problem is, those who are not prepared, those who don't have coping skills and whatever the unknown "it" is, are going to suffer.

Spurwing Plover the fighting shorebird said...

Liberals are finding out what happens when you try to put out a fire with gasoline it'll flash back and burn them