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Book Cover
E-book
Author Roberts, Sarah T. (Professor of information studies), author.

Title Behind the screen : content moderation in the shadows of social media / Sarah T. Roberts
Published New Haven : Yale University Press, [2019]
©2019

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Description 1 online resource (266 pages) : illustrations
Contents Introduction : Behind the Internet -- Behind the screen -- Understanding commercial content moderation -- Screening in Silicon Valley -- "I call myself a sin-eater" -- "Modern heroes" : moderating in Manila -- Digital humanity
Summary An eye-opening look at the invisible workers who protect us from seeing humanity's worst on today's commercial Internet. Social media on the Internet can be a nightmarish place. A primary shield against hateful language, violent videos, and online cruelty uploaded by users is not an algorithm. It is people. Mostly invisible by design, more than 100,000 commercial content moderators evaluate posts on mainstream social media platforms: enforcing internal policies, training artificial intelligence systems, and actively screening and removing offensive material--sometimes thousands of items per day. Sarah T. Roberts, an award-winning social media scholar, offers the first extensive ethnographic study of the commercial content moderation industry. Based on interviews with workers from Silicon Valley to the Philippines, at boutique firms and at major social media companies, she contextualizes this hidden industry and examines the emotional toll it takes on its workers. This revealing investigation of the people "behind the screen" offers insights into not only the reality of our commercial Internet but the future of globalized labor in the digital age
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Social media -- Censorship
Social media -- Management
User-generated content -- Censorship
User-generated content -- Management
Internet governance.
PSYCHOLOGY -- Social Psychology.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Media Studies.
Internet governance
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780300245318
0300245319
Other Titles Content moderation in the shadows of social media