Open letter from 60 content moderators to Facebook calling for proper mental health support and an end to outsourcing
Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Anne Heraty (CEO, Covalen), Julie Sweet (CEO, Accenture)
Dear Mr. Zuckerberg, Ms. Sandberg, Ms. Heraty, Ms. Sweet
We are content moderators and Facebook employees working in multiple countries across the world. We write in response to Facebook’s recent correspondence with moderators in Ireland. We, the undersigned, have serious concerns about Facebook’s approach to our safety and our wellbeing globally.
Content moderation is at the core of Facebook’s business model. It is crucial to the health and safety of the public square. And yet the company treats us unfairly and our work is unsafe. Today, we write to demand change. We have three demands:
1. Facebook must end its culture of fear and secrecy.
The non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and training sessions Facebook require us to sign and attend are not, as Facebook suggests, restricted to “user data” and “personal information”.
Despite the company’s best efforts to keep us quiet, we write to demand the company’s culture of fear and excessive secrecy ends today. No NDA can lawfully prevent us from speaking out about our working conditions.
2. Facebook must provide proper mental health support to all its moderators:
The mental health support provided to us is woefully inadequate. We need regular, long-term, sustained access to clinical psychiatrists and psychologists. One off phone calls or access to wellness coaches are not enough.
It is not that the content can “sometimes be hard”, as Facebook describes, the content is psychologically harmful. Imagine watching hours of violent content or children abuse online as part of your day to day work. You cannot be left unscathed. This job must not cost us our mental health.
3. Facebook must bring all content moderators in house:
In its letter to the Irish Parliament, Facebook suggests the work undertaken by content moderators employed directly by the company is more complex than that undertaken by content moderators employed indirectly via companies, such as Accenture.
This is misleading. The work outsourced content moderators undertake is of equal complexity and of equal value to Facebook. Second-class citizenship of outsourced moderators must end today. All content moderators must be brought in house, we should all receive the same pay, benefits, and employment conditions.
We look forward to your public response.
Very sincerely yours,
- Aune Mitchell
- Carlos Ancira
- Chelsea Hands
- Christopher Glenn
- Daniel Finlayson
- Danille Sindac
- Fatima kadhum
- Ibrahim Waziri
- Isabella Plunkett
- Joseph Pouttu
- Joshua Sklar
- Kemal Faris
- Léa Blouet
- Leanni Snyers
- Marina Duarte de Oliveira
- Milad Ariapour
- Öykü Arts
- Robert Boyce
- Sean Burke
- Tariq Yusuf
- Ugur Yasar
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