Lifehacker: How to Block Violent Videos on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. “Because it’s 2019, and livestreaming has had five years or so to really build up into a mainstream activity that people actually do, this means that horrific acts of violence and terror around the world have a greater-than-zero chance of having some video component attached to them.”
mental health
CNET: Facebook faces complaints from more former content moderators in lawsuit
CNET: Facebook faces complaints from more former content moderators in lawsuit. “Two former Facebook content moderators have joined a lawsuit against the tech giant, alleging they suffered psychological trauma and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder caused by reviewing violent images on the social network.”
Popular Science: How to block toxic comments all over the web
Popular Science: How to block toxic comments all over the web. “Some corners of the internet act as bastions of healthy discussion, but out there on the wild web, discourse appears worse than ever before. If you’re tired of feeling your blood boil every time you get to the bottom of an article or open up your social media app of choice, here’s how to clean up your internet conversations.”
Ars Technica: Suicide instructions spliced into kids’ cartoons on YouTube and YouTube Kids
Ars Technica: Suicide instructions spliced into kids’ cartoons on YouTube and YouTube Kids. “Tips for committing suicide are appearing in children’s cartoons on YouTube and the YouTube Kids app. The sinister content was first flagged by doctors on the pediatrician-run parenting blog pedimom.com and later reported by the Washington Post. An anonymous ‘physician mother’ initially spotted the content while watching cartoons with her son on YouTube Kids as a distraction while he had a nosebleed. Four minutes and forty-five seconds into a video, the cartoon cut away to a clip of a man, who many readers have pointed out resembles Internet personality Joji (formerly Filthy Frank). He walks onto the screen and simulates cutting his wrist. ‘Remember, kids, sideways for attention, longways for results,’ he says and then walks off screen. The video then quickly flips back to the cartoon.”
The Verge: The Trauma Floor
The Verge: The Trauma Floor. “It’s a place where, in stark contrast to the perks lavished on Facebook employees, team leaders micromanage content moderators’ every bathroom and prayer break; where employees, desperate for a dopamine rush amid the misery, have been found having sex inside stairwells and a room reserved for lactating mothers; where people develop severe anxiety while still in training, and continue to struggle with trauma symptoms long after they leave; and where the counseling that Cognizant offers them ends the moment they quit — or are simply let go.”
Wired: When Algorithms Think You Want to Die
Wired: When Algorithms Think You Want to Die. “Social media platforms not only host this troubling content, they end up recommending it to the people most vulnerable to it. And recommendation is a different animal than mere availability. A growing academic literature bears this out: Whether its self-harm, misinformation, terrorist recruitment, or conspiracy, platforms do more than make this content easily found—in important ways they help amplify it.”
Made In Chelsea’s Andy Jordan: Being an influencer made me ‘a puppet’ (BBC)
BBC: Made In Chelsea’s Andy Jordan: Being an influencer made me ‘a puppet’. “He was making money, but the constant selling took its toll on Andy. At the same time, he was starring in Made In Chelsea, a scripted show made to look like reality TV. ‘You just become a puppet… you’re literally like the packaging,’ he says. ‘I’d lost who I was because everything was directed by someone else.'”
