Science Magazine: “‘Dark pools’ of hate flourish online. Here are four controversial ways to fight them” – and my response

Portion of a figure from the Nature study depicting the transit of clusters of hate activity across and among platforms. An article from Eva Frederick in today's edition of Science gives some context and color commentary on a new study published in Nature that shows, among other things, how the circulation of cluster of online… Continue reading Science Magazine: “‘Dark pools’ of hate flourish online. Here are four controversial ways to fight them” – and my response

First(?) Academic Job to Reference “Content Moderation” Appears at Michigan

Saving here as much for posterity as to share it, the following announcement for a position in Michigan's School of Information for the 2018-19 has appeared. Of particular interest to me, and likely to many readers, is the fact that the job as specifically mentions "content moderation" as an area of specialization. To my knowledge,… Continue reading First(?) Academic Job to Reference “Content Moderation” Appears at Michigan

Researching ICT Companies: A Field Guide for Civil Society Researchers (and everyone else!)

Interested in how to research ICTs, but finding it daunting? Nathalie Maréchal, of USC Annenberg and Ranking Digital Rights and I wrote this handy guide, with support from the Internet Policy Observatory - a fancy PDF version is now available! tl;dr: you don’t have to have insider status (and it may even be preferable not… Continue reading Researching ICT Companies: A Field Guide for Civil Society Researchers (and everyone else!)

New article: Digital detritus: ‘Error’ and the logic of opacity in social media content moderation

Announcing a new article on the politics of commercial content moderation: Digital detritus: 'Error' and the logic of opacity in social media content moderation. This article is part of a special issue of First Monday devoted to gender and digital labor, edited by Carolyn Elerding, Roopika Risam and Radhika Gajjala. The issue also features contributions from… Continue reading New article: Digital detritus: ‘Error’ and the logic of opacity in social media content moderation

CCM in the Atlantic connects phenomenon to key questions of democracy

I'm pleased to report that, after many, many months in the works, my article on commercial content moderation has appeared in the Atlantic today. The story has taken many forms over the past few months of work on it, and has undergone necessary evolutions in response to rapid developments in social media-related conversations, and public pushback… Continue reading CCM in the Atlantic connects phenomenon to key questions of democracy

Microsoft sued by Commercial Content Moderators (#CCM) in first-of-its-kind case

In a first-of-its kind case, a Washington state attorney has filed suit on behalf of two Microsoft employees who were exposed to disturbing and abhorrent content, all a part of the conditions of their work at Microsoft as commercial content moderators (CCM). According to the article reported in the McClatchy syndicate of newspapers, the two… Continue reading Microsoft sued by Commercial Content Moderators (#CCM) in first-of-its-kind case

Pix or It Didn’t Happen: It’s on You to Prove Your Abuse

I came across a disturbing case from the Languedoc region of France today, while perusing headlines on Salon.com.  A 14 year-old girl who had been repeatedly victimized sexually by her father had reportedly caught the abuse by employing her computer's webcam. The key to the most disturbing aspects of this extremely upsetting story lies in… Continue reading Pix or It Didn’t Happen: It’s on You to Prove Your Abuse

Social Media’s Dirty Work: Contextualizing the Facebook Screening Controversy

In the past few days my inbox has seen an influx in forwards from friends and colleagues, all sharing links with me covering the recent revelation that Facebook outsources some of its dirtiest work, and that those  firms handling Facebook's outsourced labor pay exploitatively low wages for some of the most psychologically damaging digital work… Continue reading Social Media’s Dirty Work: Contextualizing the Facebook Screening Controversy