Hundreds Of Content Moderators Demand Facebook To Make Employees Prosperous In A Pandemic Time

Ilustrasi (Image Credit: Alex Haney / Unsplash

JAKARTA - More than 200 employees and content moderators at Facebook sent an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg. They demanded that Facebook provide decent welfare for employees, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In their letter, they said that Facebook should pay attention to the health and safety of its moderators when asked to return to work in the office. Where previously the company promised its employees to work from home until July 2021 during the pandemic.

"Facebook needs us. It is time you acknowledge this and respect our work. Sacrificing our health and safety for profit is immoral," the letter was quoted as saying by TechCrunch, Thursday, November 19.

In fact, these content moderators are contracted through a third party company, Accenture in Texas. At first they were allowed to work at home, but recently the company asked the moderators to return to work at the Facebook office.

Apart from asking the company to implement additional cleaning measures. The content moderators also asked Facebook to pay more, requiring them to return to work in the office, given the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the US.

"We gradually invite our people to come back to the office, but only when there is an urgent need to do so and only when we feel comfortable that we have implemented appropriate security measures, following local regulations," said Accenture.

So far Facebook is under strong pressure to stop the spread of misinformation and remove hoax content containing incitement to violence, post-US 2020 elections.

During the pandemic, Facebook relied more on artificial intelligence to detect content that violated its policies. However, artificial intelligence is considered incapable of working properly, so it needs a human moderator again

"We appreciate the valuable work of content reviewers, and we prioritize their health and safety. While we believe there will be an open internal dialogue, these discussions must be honest," said Facebook spokesperson Drew Pusateri.