The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South
When moderation gets involved with politics
In 2024, The Guardian revealed testimonies from Meta
workers who denounced unfair moderation policies toward
the Palestinian community.[10] According to an anonymous
employee and a letter signed by more than 200 people, internal
rules known as Community Engagement Expectations (CEE)
are used to remove discussions about Gaza, even when they
express condolences or question product errors that affect
the visibility of Palestinian voices. The document contrasts the
institutional silence in the face of more than 35,000 civilian
deaths in Palestine with the public support the company
expressed toward its Israeli employees after the attacks of
October 7, 2023.
According to
an anonymous
employee and a
letter signed by
more than 200
people, internal
rules known
as Community
Engagement
Expectations
(CEE) are used
to remove
discussions about
Gaza, even when
they express
condolences or
question product
errors that affect
the visibility of
Palestinian voices.
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The signatories accuse a long history of biased moderation
against Palestinian content, despite calls from Human
Rights Watch and Senator Elizabeth Warren to ensure greater
transparency. In their letter, they demand an end to internal
censorship, recognition of Palestinian suffering, and a public
statement calling for a ceasefire. The report also exposes the
structural fragility of the moderation system: human decisions
must align with Meta’s policies, but the application of those
rules varies depending on language and geographic context.
Moderation, therefore, is not just a technical or automated
exercise, as it also faces tension between corporate standards,
international treaties, and specific local contexts.
And in Latin America?
Returning to our experience, from 2023 to the present, we
have noticed a steady increase in requests for help sent to the
Amaranta NGO’s email address, not only from Chile but from
various Spanish-speaking countries. Seeking to systematize
the cases and trying to find the source of these requests,
we discovered that an organization that had been providing
services to Meta for some time recommended us as partners
for cases of technology-facilitated gender-based violence. No
one consulted us or informed us of this. This replicates what
other civil society organizations denounce, which is how a
multimillion-dollar corporation shifts responsibility to small
organizations in the global south. This fact accurately sums up
the extractive and unequal logic of today’s digital ecosystem.
A Big Tech Accountability in Content Moderation with Feminist Perspective
The Platform Question: Power, Accountability and Global South
Week after week, we continue to receive cases of digital sexual
violence, non-consensual dissemination of intimate images,
and identity theft, including cases from Arab countries. We
try to respond to each message with humanity, knowing that
behind every automated form that did not work for the victims,
there is a story that the platforms do not want to address.
Ivana Feldfeber points out the following in the prologue to the
report Helplines for addressing cases of gender-based violence
in digital environments[11] :
“It is essential to consider the role of technology companies,
which facilitate the use of these platforms. And at this point,
it is necessary to emphasize that companies do not give us
free products altruistically; they are not mere service providers
to society. Rather, behind these social networks are large
economic interests, with millions of dollars in contracts with
companies, governments, and other groups to offer advertising
and traffic their users’ data (...) These companies, when asked
to block users, remove content disseminated without consent,
or recover hacked accounts, they often do not comply with
these requests. The same companies that censor images of
female nipples on their platforms ignore calls for help from their
users who are victims of digital gender-based violence.”
Meta, like other companies in the sector, outsources digital
violence to precarious and subcontracted workers, making
their suffering invisible and normalizing technological progress
based on the emotional precariousness of those who moderate
content and also train artificial intelligence to appear more
human for the same price, without forgetting that they end
up delegating their responsibility for digital violence to civil
Conclusion
The discussion about content moderators is becoming
political and requires immediate attention. Who decides what
is acceptable to see on the internet? And at what human
cost is that decision sustained? Can we talk about safe digital
spaces if this task is left in the hands of precarious workers
with low wages and little psychological protection? How can
we demand accountability from platforms that includes all
these aspects if they are currently invisible due to outsourcing?
Meta, like other
companies in the
sector, outsources
digital violence
to precarious and
subcontracted
workers, making their
suffering invisible
and normalizing
technological
progress based
on the emotional
precariousness of
those who moderate
content and also train
artificial intelligence
to appear more
human for the same
price.
A Big Tech Accountability in Content Moderation with Feminist Perspective
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