I don’t even want to link to that story by Casey Newton at The Verge because it’s so disturbing and tragic. I read the whole thing because as the founder of Micro.blog, where we value the balance between content ownership and curation, I had to understand what Facebook is doing so we don’t repeat the same mistakes.
Social networks like Facebook (and Twitter) are designed to reward the sensational video. The timeline algorithm, “like” counts, and quick re-sharing all contribute to surfacing both the best and worst content. Whatever drives engagement.
Facebook is right to hire thousands of content moderators. But they should be real employees with healthy working conditions, not people who Facebook feels no responsibility to take care of. This is the most damning article I’ve ever read about Facebook.
