Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media

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.

Author: Sarah T. Roberts
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 09/28/2021
Pages: 292
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.68lbs
Size: 8.33h x 5.58w x 0.84d
ISBN13: 9780300261479
ISBN10: 0300261470
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Media Studies
- Computers | Internet | Social Media
- Computers | Social Aspects

About the Author
Sarah T. Roberts is assistant professor of information studies in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a 2018 Carnegie Fellow and a 2018 winner of the EFF Pioneer Award.