San Francisco (AFP)

Two days before a parliamentary hearing on the platforms and the content they host, Facebook moderators, on the front line in the face of hate messages and violent images, ask to be better treated and listened to by the social media giant.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg should "find a way to hire full-time moderators" from within the company, instead of outsourcing, Allison Trebacz, an expert, said Monday. former moderator.

She was speaking at a press conference organized by the "Real Facebook Oversight Board", a collective of associations that accuses the platform of not fighting enough against disinformation, hate messages and manipulative campaigns, which have repercussions in real life and in democratic processes.

“The moderators are passionate about their work and being on the front lines they have a lot of great ideas on how to make the network better and safer,” continued Allison Trebacz.

"They are at the heart of Facebook's business and should be treated as such."

Facebook does not directly employ the majority of its thousands of content moderators worldwide.

The Californian group uses subcontractors in the United States and around the world for these tasks which have become crucial when it is regularly accused of serving as a platform for violent groups and racist individuals, in particular.

“Whenever I tried to deal with content dripping with racism, or even threats, I was told to fall in line. Our job was to agree,” said Viana Ferguson, also. former moderator.

"Facebook must reform the way it writes its rules and listen to moderators."

"When you are in the Senate this week, and you will talk about everything you do to protect the American elections (...), you will talk about our work, you will say that we are 30,000 in the world (...) but you won't admit that you refuse to hire us directly, you won't say that the subcontractors pay us badly, ”said an anonymous moderator, speaking to Mark Zuckerberg.

He chose to remain anonymous because he is not allowed to say that he works for Facebook, "even to his family".

Most moderators are in this case.

MM.

Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey (boss of Twitter) and Sundar Pichai (boss of Google), will be heard Wednesday by a committee in the Senate on Section 230 of the "Communications Decency Act", a law relating to freedom of expression on the Internet and the responsibility of large platforms.

© 2020 AFP