I didn’t eat or sleep’: a Meta moderator on his breakdown after seeing beheadings and child abuse; The Guardian, April 27, 2025

 Rachel Hall and Claire Wilmot, The Guardian; I didn’t eat or sleep’: a Meta moderator on his breakdown after seeing beheadings and child abuse

"When Solomon* strode into the gleaming Octagon tower in Accra, Ghana, for his first day as a Meta content moderator, he was bracing himself for difficult but fulfilling work, purging social media of harmful content.

But after just two weeks of training, the scale and depravity of what he was exposed to was far darker than he ever imagined."

Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators; The Guardian, April 27, 2025

Rachel Hall and Claire Wilmot, The Guardian; Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators

"Meta is facing a second set of lawsuits in Africa over the psychological distress experienced by content moderators employed to take down disturbing social media content including depictions of murders, extreme violence and child sexual abuse.

Lawyers are gearing up for court action against a company contracted by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, after meeting moderators at a facility in Ghana that is understood to employ about 150 people.

Moderators working for Majorel in Accra claim they have suffered from depression, anxiety, insomnia and substance abuse as a direct consequence of the work they do checking extreme content.

The allegedly gruelling conditions endured by workers in Ghana are revealed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism."

‘I quit my job as a content moderator. I can never go back to who I was before.’; The Washington Post, September 9, 2024

 Beatrix Lockwood, The Washington Post;  ‘I quit my job as a content moderator. I can never go back to who I was before.’

"Alberto Cuadra worked as a content moderator at a video-streaming platform for just under a year, but he saw things he’ll never forget. He watched videos about murders and suicides, animal abuse and child abuse, sexual violence and teenage bullying — all so you didn’t have to. What shows up when you scroll through social media has been filtered through an army of tens of thousands of content moderators, who protect us at the risk of their own mental health.

Warning: The following illustrations contain references to disturbing content."

Facebook finally explains why it bans some content, in 27 pages; The Washington Post, April 24, 2018

Elizabeth Dwoskin and Tracy Jan, The Washington Post; Facebook finally explains why it bans some content, in 27 pages

"“We want people to know our standards, and we want to give people clarity,” Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, said in an interview. She added that she hoped publishing the guidelines would spark dialogue. “We are trying to strike the line between safety and giving people the ability to really express themselves.”"