Facebook content moderators in India complain of high pressure and low pay: Report

In less than a week after The Verge's detailed report explained in length about the toxic and traumatic work environment endured by Facebook's low-paid content moderators in Arizona, a new report highlights a similar state of affairs at Genpact - a firm contracted to look after Facebook's content moderation in India.

Facebook has deployed a 1600-member team at Genpact with offices in Hyderabad, capital of southern India's Telangana state.

Facebook's seven content reviewers, all in their 20s, described their work as underpaid, stressful and traumatic, reports Reuters after a months-long investigation. Three reviewers had already left Genpact by the time the report was published. Genpact did not comment.

“I have seen women employees breaking down on the floor, reliving the trauma of watching suicides real-time,” one former employee said.

In January, Facebook’s vice president of operations Ellen Silver had this to say:

“We care deeply about getting this right. This includes the training reviewers receive, our hiring practices, the wellness resources that we provide to each and every person reviewing content, and our overall engagement with partners.”

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Although Facebook rejected the Hyderabad employees’ assertions about low pay, Facebook has said it had started outlining a code of conduct for outsourcing partners. However, Facebook did not share details.

At Genpact in Hyderabad, several teams review Facebook posts in Indian languages, English, Arabic, Afghan and Asian tribal dialects. Meanwhile, there are different teams to deal with different type of posts such as nudity, explicit pornography, counter-terrorism, self-harm, etc.

An entry-level Facebook Arabic language content reviewer makes Rs 1 lakh annually (Rs 8,333 monthly). However, Facebook disputed saying that "benefits made the real pay much higher." The workers said they received transport to and from work.

Reuters verified pay slips of moderators employed by another IT outsourcing firm Accenture in Hyderabad. Those reviewers monitor Arabic content on YouTube on behalf of Google for a minimum of 350,000 rupees annually (Rs 29167 annually).

Although Genpact did not comment on its work for Facebook, it said that its wages are “significantly higher than the standard in the industry or the minimum wage set by law.”