BEHIND THE SCREEN Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media

SARAH T. ROBERTS is an assistant professor of information studies in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. She is a 2018 Carnegie Fellow and a 2018 winner of the EFF Pioneer Award. As a social media scholar, Roberts offers the first extensive ethnographic study of the commercial content moderation industry. Based on interviews with workers from Silicon Valley to the

Photo: Stella Kalinina

Philippines, at boutique firms and at major social media companies, the book 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. In this excerpt from “Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media” (Yale University Press, 2019), we are introduced to a content moderator named Melinda, as interviewed by Professor Roberts. Sarah T. Roberts 10 UCLA Ed&IS FALL 2019