‘No job for humans’: the harrowing work of content moderators in Kenya

Trevin Brownie’s first day as a content moderator for Facebook is etched in his memory, working out of a subcontractor’s nondescript office in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

“My first video, it was a man committing suicide… there was a two- or three-year-old kid playing next to him. After the guy hanged himself, after about two minutes, the child notices something is wrong,” said the 30-year-old South African, recalling the youngster’s heartwrenching response.

“It made me sick… But I kept on working.”

For three years he watched hundreds of violent, hateful videos every day and removed them from Facebook.