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By Adam Satariano and Mike Isaac, The New York Times Company
In 2019, Julie Sweet, the recently appointed main enforcement of planetary consulting steadfast Accenture, held a gathering with apical managers. She had a question: Should Accenture get retired of immoderate of the enactment it was doing for a starring client, Facebook?
For years, tensions had mounted wrong Accenture implicit a definite task that it performed for the societal network. In eight-hour shifts, thousands of its full-time employees and contractors were sorting done Facebook’s astir noxious posts, including images, videos and messages astir suicides, beheadings and intersexual acts, trying to forestall them from spreading online.
Some of those Accenture workers, who reviewed hundreds of Facebook posts successful a shift, said they had started experiencing depression, anxiousness and paranoia. In the United States, 1 idiosyncratic had joined a class-action suit to protestation the moving conditions. News sum linked Accenture to the grisly work. So Sweet had ordered a reappraisal to sermon the increasing ethical, ineligible and reputational risks.
At the gathering successful Accenture’s Washington office, she and Ellyn Shook, caput of quality resources, voiced concerns astir the intelligence toll of the enactment for Facebook and the harm to the firm’s reputation, attendees said. Some executives who oversaw the Facebook relationship argued that the problems were manageable. They said the societal web was excessively lucrative a lawsuit to lose.
The gathering ended with nary resolution.
Facebook and Accenture person seldom talked astir their statement oregon adjacent acknowledged that they enactment with each other. But their secretive narration lies astatine the bosom of an effort by the world’s largest societal media institution to region itself from the astir toxic portion of its business.
For years, Facebook has been nether scrutiny for the convulsive and hateful contented that flows done its site. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly pledged to cleanable up the platform. He has promoted the usage of artificial quality to weed retired toxic posts and touted efforts to prosecute thousands of workers to region the messages that AI doesn’t.
But down the scenes, Facebook has softly paid others to instrumentality connected overmuch of the responsibility. Since 2012, the institution has hired astatine slightest 10 consulting and staffing firms globally to sift done its posts, on with a wider web of subcontractors, according to interviews and nationalist records.
No institution has been much important to that endeavor than Accenture. The Fortune 500 firm, amended known for providing high-end tech, accounting and consulting services to multinational companies and governments, has go Facebook’s azygous biggest spouse successful moderating content, according to an introspection by The New York Times.
Accenture has taken connected the enactment — and fixed it a veneer of respectability — due to the fact that Facebook has signed contracts with it for contented moderation and different services worthy astatine slightest $500 cardinal a year, according to The Times’ examination. Accenture employs much than a 3rd of the 15,000 radical whom Facebook has said it has hired to inspect its posts. And portion the agreements supply lone a tiny fraction of Accenture’s yearly revenue, they springiness it an important lifeline into Silicon Valley. Within Accenture, Facebook is known arsenic a “diamond client.”
Their contracts, which person not antecedently been reported, person redefined the accepted boundaries of an outsourcing relationship. Accenture has absorbed the worst facets of moderating contented and made Facebook’s contented issues its own. As a outgo of doing business, it has dealt with workers’ intelligence wellness issues from reviewing the posts. It has grappled with labour activism erstwhile those workers pushed for much wage and benefits. And it has silently borne nationalist scrutiny erstwhile they person spoken retired against the work.
Those issues person been compounded by Facebook’s demanding hiring targets and show goals and truthful galore shifts successful its contented policies that Accenture struggled to support up, 15 existent and erstwhile employees said. And erstwhile faced with ineligible enactment from moderators astir the work, Accenture stayed quiescent arsenic Facebook argued that it was not liable due to the fact that the workers belonged to Accenture and others.
“You couldn’t person Facebook arsenic we cognize it contiguous without Accenture,” said Cori Crider, a co-founder of Foxglove, a instrumentality steadfast that represents contented moderators. “Enablers similar Accenture, for eye-watering fees, person fto Facebook clasp the halfway quality occupation of its concern astatine arm’s length.”
The Times interviewed much than 40 existent and erstwhile Accenture and Facebook employees, labour lawyers and others astir the companies’ relationship, which besides includes accounting and advertizing work. Most spoke anonymously due to the fact that of nondisclosure agreements and fearfulness of reprisal. The Times besides reviewed Facebook and Accenture documents, ineligible records and regulatory filings.
Facebook and Accenture declined to marque executives disposable for comment. Drew Pusateri, a Facebook spokesperson, said the institution was alert that contented moderation “jobs tin beryllium difficult, which is wherefore we enactment intimately with our partners to perpetually measure however to champion enactment these teams.”
Stacey Jones, an Accenture spokesperson, said the enactment was a nationalist work that was “essential to protecting our nine by keeping the net safe.”
Neither institution mentioned the different by name.
Pornographic Posts
Much of Facebook’s enactment with Accenture traces backmost to a nudity problem.
In 2007, millions of users joined the societal web each period — and galore posted bare photos. A colony that Facebook reached that twelvemonth with Andrew Cuomo, who was New York’s lawyer general, required the institution to instrumentality down pornographic posts flagged by users wrong 24 hours.
Facebook employees who policed contented were soon overwhelmed by the measurement of work, members of the squad said. Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s main operating officer, and different executives pushed the squad to find automated solutions for combing done the content, 3 of them said.
Facebook besides began looking astatine outsourcing, they said. Outsourcing was cheaper than hiring radical and provided taxation and regulatory benefits, on with the flexibility to turn oregon shrink rapidly successful regions wherever the institution did not person offices oregon connection expertise. Sandberg helped champion the outsourcing idea, they said, and midlevel managers worked retired the details.
By 2011, Facebook was moving with oDesk, a work that recruited freelancers to reappraisal content. But successful 2012, aft quality tract Gawker reported that oDesk workers successful Morocco and elsewhere were paid arsenic small arsenic $1 per hr for the work, Facebook began seeking different partner.
Facebook landed connected Accenture. Formerly known arsenic Andersen Consulting, the steadfast had rebranded arsenic Accenture successful 2001 aft a interruption with accounting steadfast Arthur Andersen. And it wanted to summation traction successful Silicon Valley.
In 2010, Accenture scored an accounting declaration with Facebook. By 2012, that had expanded to see a woody for moderating content, peculiarly extracurricular the United States.
That year, Facebook sent employees to Manila, Philippines, and Warsaw, Poland, to bid Accenture workers to benignant done posts, 2 erstwhile Facebook employees progressive with the travel said. Accenture’s workers were taught to usage a Facebook bundle strategy and the platform’s guidelines for leaving contented up, taking it down oregon escalating it for review.
‘Honey Badger’
What started arsenic a fewer twelve Accenture moderators grew rapidly.
By 2015, Accenture’s bureau successful the San Francisco Bay Area had acceptable up a team, code-named Honey Badger, conscionable for Facebook’s needs, erstwhile employees said. Accenture went from providing astir 300 workers successful 2015 to astir 3,000 successful 2016. They are a premix of full-time employees and contractors, depending connected the determination and task.
The steadfast soon parlayed its enactment with Facebook into moderation contracts with YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and others, executives said. (The integer contented moderation manufacture is projected to scope $8.8 cardinal adjacent year, according to Everest Group, astir treble the 2020 total.) Facebook besides gave Accenture contracts successful areas similar checking for fake oregon duplicate idiosyncratic accounts and monitoring personage and marque accounts to guarantee they were not flooded with abuse.
After national authorities discovered successful 2016 that Russian operatives had utilized Facebook to dispersed divisive posts to U.S. voters for the statesmanlike election, the institution ramped up the fig of moderators. It said it would prosecute much than 3,000 radical — connected apical of the 4,500 it already had — to constabulary the platform.
“If we’re going to physique a harmless community, we request to respond quickly,” Zuckerberg said successful a 2017 post.
The adjacent year, Facebook hired Arun Chandra, a erstwhile Hewlett Packard Enterprise executive, arsenic vice president of scaled operations to assistance oversee the narration with Accenture and others. His part is overseen by Sandberg.
Facebook besides dispersed the contented enactment to different firms, specified arsenic Cognizant and TaskUs. Facebook present provides a 3rd of TaskUs’ business, oregon $150 cardinal a year, according to regulatory filings.
The enactment was challenging. While much than 90% of objectionable worldly that comes crossed Facebook and Instagram is removed by AI, outsourced workers indispensable determine whether to permission up the posts that the AI doesn’t catch.
They person a show people that is based connected correctly reviewing posts against Facebook’s policies. If they marque mistakes much than 5% of the time, they tin beryllium fired, Accenture employees said.
But Facebook’s rules astir what was acceptable changed constantly, causing confusion. When radical utilized a state presumption emoji arsenic slang for selling marijuana, workers deleted the posts for violating the company’s contented argumentation connected drugs. Facebook past told moderators not to region the posts, earlier aboriginal reversing course.
Facebook besides tweaked its moderation technology, adding caller keyboard shortcuts to velocity up the reappraisal process. But the updates were sometimes released with small warning, expanding errors.
As of May, Accenture billed Facebook for astir 1,900 full-time moderators successful Manila; 1,300 successful Mumbai, India; 850 successful Lisbon; 780 successful Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 300 successful Warsaw; 300 successful Mountain View, California; 225 successful Dublin; and 135 successful Austin, Texas, according to staffing records reviewed by The Times.
At the extremity of each month, Accenture sent invoices to Facebook detailing the hours worked by its moderators and the measurement of contented reviewed. Each U.S. moderator generated $50 oregon much per hr for Accenture, 2 radical with cognition of the billing said. In contrast, moderators successful immoderate U.S. cities received starting wage of $18 an hour.
Psychological Costs
Within Accenture, workers began questioning the effects of viewing truthful galore hateful posts.
Accenture hired intelligence wellness counselors to grip the fallout. Izabela Dziugiel, a counsellor who worked successful Accenture’s Warsaw office, said she told managers successful 2018 that they were hiring radical ill-prepared to benignant done the content. Her bureau handled posts from the Middle East, including gruesome images and videos of the Syrian war.
“They would conscionable prosecute anybody,” said Dziugiel, who antecedently treated soldiers with post-traumatic accent disorder. She near the steadfast successful 2019.
In Dublin, 1 Accenture moderator who sifted done Facebook contented near a termination enactment connected his table successful 2018, said a intelligence wellness counsellor who was progressive successful the episode. The idiosyncratic was recovered safe.
Joshua Sklar, a moderator successful Austin who discontinue successful April, said helium had reviewed 500 to 700 posts a shift, including images of dormant bodies aft car crashes and videos of animals being tortured.
“One video that I watched was a feline who was filming himself raping a small girl,” said Sklar, who described his acquisition successful an interior station that aboriginal became public. “It was conscionable awful.”
If workers went astir Accenture’s concatenation of bid and straight communicated with Facebook astir contented issues, they risked being reprimanded, helium added. That made Facebook slower to larn astir and respond to problems, helium said.
Facebook said anyone filtering contented could escalate concerns.
Another erstwhile moderator successful Austin, Spencer Darr, said successful a ineligible proceeding successful June that the occupation had required him to marque unimaginable decisions, specified arsenic whether to delete a video of a canine being skinned live oregon simply people it arsenic disturbing. “Content moderators’ occupation is an intolerable one,” helium said.
In 2018, Accenture introduced WeCare — policies that intelligence wellness counselors said constricted their quality to dainty workers. Their titles were changed to “wellness coaches” and they were instructed not to springiness intelligence assessments oregon diagnoses, but to supply “short-term support” similar taking walks oregon listening to calming music. The goal, according to a 2018 Accenture guidebook, was to thatch moderators “how to respond to hard situations and content.”
Accenture’s Jones said the institution was “committed to helping our radical who bash this important enactment win some professionally and personally.” Workers tin spot extracurricular psychologists.
By 2019, scrutiny of the manufacture was growing. That year, Cognizant said it was exiting contented moderation aft tech tract The Verge described the debased wage and intelligence wellness effects of workers astatine an Arizona office. Cognizant said the determination would outgo it astatine slightest $240 cardinal successful gross and pb to 6,000 occupation cuts.
Internal Debate
More than 1 Accenture main enforcement debated doing concern with Facebook.
In 2017, Pierre Nanterme, Accenture’s main astatine the time, questioned the morals of the enactment and whether it acceptable the firm’s semipermanent strategy of providing services with precocious nett margins and method expertise, 3 executives progressive successful the discussions said.
No actions were taken. Nanterme died of crab successful January 2019.
Five months later, Sweet, a longtime Accenture lawyer and executive, was named main executive. She soon ordered the reappraisal of the moderation business, 3 erstwhile colleagues said.
Executives prepared reports and debated however the enactment compared with jobs similar an ambulance driver. Consultants were sent to observe moderators and their managers.
The bureau successful Austin, which had opened successful 2017, was selected for an audit arsenic portion of Sweet’s review. The metropolis was besides location to a Facebook bureau and had ample populations of Spanish and Arabic speakers to work non-English posts. At its peak, Accenture’s Austin bureau had astir 300 moderators parsing done Facebook posts.
But immoderate workers determination became unhappy astir the wage and viewing truthful overmuch toxic content. Organizing done substance messages and interior connection boards, they called for amended wages and benefits. Some shared their stories with the media.
Last year, a idiosyncratic successful Austin was 1 of 2 from Accenture who joined a class-action suit against Facebook filed by U.S. moderators. Facebook argued that it was not liable due to the fact that the workers were employed by firms similar Accenture, according to tribunal records. After the justice successful the lawsuit ruled against Facebook, the institution reached a $52 cardinal colony with the workers successful May 2020.
For Sweet, the statement implicit the Facebook contracts stretched retired implicit respective meetings, erstwhile executives said. She subsequently made respective changes.
In December 2019, Accenture created a two-page ineligible disclosure to pass moderators astir the risks of the job. The enactment had “the imaginable to negatively interaction your affectional oregon intelligence health,” the papers said.
Last October, Accenture went further. It listed contented moderation for the archetypal clip arsenic a hazard origin successful its yearly report, saying it could permission the steadfast susceptible to media scrutiny and ineligible trouble. Accenture besides restricted caller moderation clients, 2 radical with cognition of the argumentation displacement said. Any caller contracts required support from elder management.
But Sweet besides near immoderate things untouched, they said.
Among them: the contracts with Facebook. Ultimately, the radical said, the lawsuit was excessively invaluable to locomotion distant from.
This nonfiction primitively appeared successful The New York Times.
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