Facebook content moderators say office push risks lives

More than 200 of Facebook Inc.’s content moderators said their lives are being put at risk by the requirement to work in offices in global hot spots during the pandemic.

“Now, on top of work that is psychologically toxic, holding onto the job means walking into a hot zone,” wrote the outside contractors and Facebook employees in a letter to the executives of the social-media company and the contracting companies released Wednesday. Moderators sift through explicit, violent and abusive content to remove it from Facebook’s social network.

“Workers have asked Facebook leadership, and the leadership of your outsourcing firms like Accenture and CPL, to take urgent steps to protect us and value our work. You refused.” Several Covid-19 cases have occurred at moderator workplaces, according to the letter.