UK - This investigative documentary in the estimable Dispatches strand sent a reporter undercover as a content moderator for a rare look at the secretive process that rules what can and what cannot be posed on the world’s biggest social network. What are their criteria for what gets deleted from the site and what stays? And what are the implications for the unwitting 2.2 billion people who use it? Forget fake news, data harvesting or influencing elections. This was about the footsoldiers patrolling Facebook’s frontline. For Mark Zuckerberg and co, it won’t have made comfortable viewing.
Facebook outsources the job to the likes of Dublin-based CPL Resources, the largest moderation centre for UK content. Millions of Facebook posts get reported and flagged each week. It’s staff at places like this who decide whether to ignore, delete or “MAD” (mark as disturbing).
We saw a graphic video of child abuse that wasn’t only allowed to stay but got shared thousands of times. So did disturbing clips of people eating live animals, school bullies beating up victims, and images of self-harm and eating disorders. Social media can play a huge role in the latter two conditions.
In unguarded moments, moderators conceded that too much censorship was bad for business. Shocking content and extreme politics kept users on the site for longer, meaning more exposure to advertising and more money for Facebook. Zuckerberg might mark this programme as disturbing but I click on “like”.
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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