Women in rural communities describe trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companies
  • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2 months

    This world we create is so disgusting. Tech billionaires paying the least possible amount for “work” which borders slavery. And everyone seems to be OK with it.

    • Great Blue Heron@lemmy.caEnglish
      2 months

      It’s not just that it’s slavery, but it’s literally destroying the people doing it. Being exposed to so much horrendous content has lasting impact. It’s like the coal mines (or any number of other body destroying examples) but it’s not lungs that suffer, it’s the brain.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2 months

        I’d argue that every kind of slavery literally destroys the slaves…kinda by definition :-( But yeah, this “job” is horrible. Especially if you don’t even know what will suddenly hit you after you applied for a seemingly harmless job.

    • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 months

      I would say that it wasn’t us, the ordinary people, who created this terrible world, but we definitely allowed the worst among us to do so - and we even rewarded them for it, so that this monstrous world is now ruled by the most ruthless, like a monarchy that was believed to have been overcome. Apparently, civilizational progress is not bound to the passage of time, as I strongly suspect that we are regressing civilizational: back to absolutism with its degenerate rulers who give free rein to their perverse desires - and they can do so, because they are at the top of a society they exploit with impunity.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2 months

        Well put and yes, that’s sadly true. We just sit there and watched people seize control who should never have had ANY kind of control over anything in the first place. This species sadly highly rewards the psychological dark triad (or tetrad) so well, it hurts. The worst that humanity has to offer has the highest chance to lead it. Not even a question of sex or race or anything, it’s just us.

        • Curious_Canid@piefed.caEnglish
          1 month

          I don’t think that is a characteristic of our species. It is not universally true across other cultures.
          And studies strongly suggest that the characteristic that was most important to the early survival of humans was altruism. There are always a lot more people who are basically good than basically bad. Only around 4% of the population are sociopathic.

          Unfortunately, promoting sociopaths is a built-in characteristic of capitalism. Without controls, it rewards managers who are willing to sacrifice other people for profit (or power). The people who do that the best are those without empathy. So we end up with the worst of us making the decisions about how the world should work.

          • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
            1 month

            But I’d argue that capitalism is just the inevitable epitome of us rewarding the worst of us.

            Even in socialism the dark triad gets further.

            Altruism being advantageous in our early survival makes sense, yes. But, whatever the 4% always came up with in every period, won. Purely evolutionary speaking, it might even be better for survival nowadays than altruism would be.

            Your point, that there always more basically good than evil people, might be true (and I wish it would be), but the world sucks in every place anywhere. Just to a different level. So it kinda means nothing when the 96% just watch or ignore the work of the 4%.

    • lechekaflan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1 month

      Social media was a mistake.

      The first few years was just about fun and sharing high points of our lives (I was then pulled into Facebook by MMO clanmates initially for the casual games and for group communications). But then just came the fringers, the lechers, and the extremists, before entities like Cambridge Analytica arrived with the idea social media could also be used to manipulate the masses.

      • Dyskolos@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1 month

        absolutely. Social media is a malign cancer of the web AND real life. I was there (3000 years ago) when the internet begun, it hurts so much to see how social media did spread the rot. As if the other rot by google and the majority of big tech wasn’t enough already.

        Yeah the irony of us dissing social media…on Lemmy 😁

  • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
    2 months

    Is that seriously an “AI is like a child” poster made to motivate workers?

    AI companies sure love to treat humans like machines, while humanizing machines.

      • XLE@piefed.socialEnglish
        1 month

        What a disgusting philosophy to have towards others. Please keep it to yourself.

      • deltaspawn0040@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1 month

        To them, yeah. Worst part is they have to pay us enough to “live happily” instead of just keeping us in a box

        • Darkness343@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
          1 month

          I know. We should’ve made other organic machines by now but we are wasting time with metallic machines

          • MrKoyun@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1 month

            Why not just use the “lesser” organic machines instead? Oh wait.

            • Darkness343@lemmy.worldBannedEnglish
              1 month

              That’s what I’ve been wondering. We could’ve find a way to upgrade the animals. But no. We are wasting our technology in tricking rocks into thinking.

              Didn’t the useless scientists think about how much more progress we would get if we had others to think alongside us?

      • Lemminary@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1 month

        Yes, we are, but people hate hearing that by the looks of your downvotes. 🤷‍♂️

  • shameless@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 months

    I’m honestly so sick of this sick world we live in. Lately it just seems like the veil has slipped and we can see how truly depraved the rich and powerful are and we are not able to do anything significant to change it.

    • Mongostein@lemmy.caEnglish
      1 month

      We are, but we’d have to give up a lot.

      However, they keep taking more and more. So how long before they take enough that giving up the rest is worth it?

    • lastlybutfirstly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1 month

      The sick world you live in is online. It’s not real. The world you see through your black mirror isn’t the same as the one you see outside the window. News has always been a litany of human misery. Online news is pure and condensed human suffering.

  • Seth Taylor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1 month

    Dude… this is insane. This kind of work should be done by law enforcement or something. Certainly by somebody who has seen plenty of video evidence in their lifetime. By somebody who has regular visits with a mental health specialist as a work requirement. Unbelievable the things the tech industry will save on and how little they care about people. Why don’t they have their own damn family members watch all that deranged crap?

    • Agent641@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1 month

      As much as I hate to say it, law enforcement are people too. Not good people, but people.

      Nobody should have to do a job that injured them, physically or mentally.

      • PointyFluff@lemmy.mlBannedEnglish
        1 month

        That’s 100% a stupid take.
        There are many dangerous jobs that NEED to be done.
        And the people who do the jobs to keep your soft ass safe should be honored and well compensated.

  • FauxLiving@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 months

    People watch hours of traumatic content all day voluntarily.

    How many people have you seen being killed this year? Probably more than most people ever see in their entire lives (before computers).

    That trauma adds up for everyone

  • yardratianSoma@lemmy.caEnglish
    2 months

    I know it’s a horrible job, but at this point I wouldn’t mind trading some sanity to pay the bills.

    Crazy world.

  • PointyFluff@lemmy.mlBannedEnglish
    1 month

    These women are GLOBAL heroines.

    They absolutely should be treated as such.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2 months

    They use AI to pre-select training data anyway. Can’t they categorize good content with it? Whitelist vs. blacklist.

      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1 month

        The filter-AI that is itself trained to recognize only good content. Right now, they use all except some bad.

  • Blo0dixte4rz@hilariouschaos.comEnglish
    1 month

    Yes, this should be left to professionals who are trained and conditioned for this type of service: myself just having witnessed these types of interactions both personally and on the outside, can only imagine how that goes if it were day in and day out. I’m so messed up from those.  GL