
Facebook employs hundreds of young Filipinos to remove offensive material - recursion
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4548898/Facebook-young-Filipino-terror-related-material-Manchester.html
======
dirtylowprofile
I'm from the Philippines and 6 day week is frowned upon. I can't believe
Facebook has tolerated this. As with other countries, we only work for 5 days.
Corporate greed is taking advantage of the small rates here.

I know outsourcing is good here. I know a lot of small startups here who does
not take advantage of the cheap talent rates here. But this is Facebook. They
preach "work life balance" on their blogs but seem to tolerate modern slavery
here in my country. This is wrong. I hope this gets to the front page of your
blogs and newspaper here.

~~~
ageek123
I'm sympathetic, but saying that working six days a week (which MANY Americans
do) is "modern slavery" seems like quite a stretch.

~~~
unfunco
Compare wages, living conditions, and working conditions.

Intentional hyperbole: being forced into wage slavery in order to afford basic
food and clean drinking water is a little different than taking a driverless
car to the Googleplex on a Saturday morning for free breakfast and a game of
ping pong.

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gravypod
I was about to throw away this napkin. Glad I hung on to it for a little
longer. When I see things like this, I often ask myself "Why would people take
this job?" and some times I find it's because it pays very well from the
perspective of the local economy.

    
    
        1. £1.36 = 86.68 Philippine Peso (according to Google)
        2. average annual family income ... 267 thousand pesos [0]
        3. 267000 / 2 = ~133500 yearly person income
        4. There are about 2,087 work hours in a year [1]
        5. yearly/hours 133500/2087 = ~64 Philippine Peso
    
        * Average Guesstimated Salary: 64 Philippine Peso/hour
        * Facebook Censurer Take Home: 87 Philippine Peso/hour
    

That's about 30% more then the average take home.

Let me crunch the numbers again for the top 10% earners [0] bracket.

    
    
        1. (786000/2)/2087 = 188 Philippine Peso/hour
    

That means a person in a top 10% earners household is only making about
(188/87) 2.16 times what you make.

According to Investopedia the "average household income for the top 10% of
earners is higher, at $295,845". which means that running the same numbers...

    
    
        1. (295845/2)/2087 = 70
        2. 70 / 2.16       = $32 USD/HR
    

Since they are earning 2.16 times less then the top 10% bracket I'd guess that
taking (top 10% hourly wage / 2.16) would give you a localized approximation
for your economy. Doing this job is the local equivalent of ~$32 USD/HR in USA
money for reading Facebook posts and deciding if it is terrorism or not.

I know I've definitely gotten some stuff wrong here. Please correct me if you
know better.

[0] - [https://psa.gov.ph/content/average-family-
income-2015-estima...](https://psa.gov.ph/content/average-family-
income-2015-estimated-22-thousand-pesos-monthly-results-2015-family-income)

[1] - [https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-
admi...](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-
administration/fact-sheets/computing-hourly-rates-of-pay-using-the-2087-hour-
divisor/)

[2] - [http://www.investopedia.com/news/how-much-income-puts-you-
to...](http://www.investopedia.com/news/how-much-income-puts-you-top-1-5-10/)

~~~
developer2
I don't think anyone is disputing the "benefit" to the worker, from their
perspective. The outrage is that corporations take advantage. They refuse to
employ US employees because they would have to pay reasonable wages, provide
healthcare, offer stock options, etc. So they outsource to skirt _millions_ on
all of the above.

I'm really sick and tired of "but they're happy to have the abysmally low-
paying job, because in _their currency_ it's above-average!". Companies like
Facebook aren't outsourcing to "give jobs to the needy"; they only do it
because it's disgustingly cheap for them. The destitute, desperately grasping
at the crumbs dropped on the floor by the rich, is not a positive thing. It's
depressing.

What's next? Do we defend companies who hold immigrants' passports hostage,
enslaving people indefinitely with no way out? After all, they pay X% above
average! Those workers should be thankful just to have a job! Who cares that
they'll never see their family again, and likely die while living in squalor?

~~~
gravypod
I agree with you. I don't think it's right but we're in a shitty situation
now. You have the following choices:

    
    
        1. Choose to fire the now reasonably well off employees forcing them to go back to a previous lines of employment that were less lucrative
        2. Force companies to stop outsourcing labor which will in turn make it more likely for other countries to create similar sanctions like this against you.
        3. Make companies pay foreign employees a "reasonable" rate based on local offering thereby making these jobs infinitely more lucrative then even well-educated professions and ultimately tilting their economy in an unwanted direction.
    

We live in times where economic action is also foreign policy. How would you
like it if a country richer then yours started offering jobs for 100x the
average wage that you are used to? Would you try and get one of those jobs?
Would people start expecting that wage in other places? Would this change the
way the market behaves?

> The destitute, desperately grasping at the crumbs dropped on the floor by
> the rich, is not a positive thing

I wouldn't call the Philippines destitute. I know a few people who'd be
offended by that characterization. I'd also ask: why are these people doing
these jobs if it's not better then what they were doing before? Better either
being higher pay, easier labor, or more enjoyable work environment.

~~~
developer2
>> why are these people doing these jobs

The only question is "why are rich American companies outsourcing to the
poor?". There's no reason why they _have to_. They can entirely afford paying
full market wage in the US. If it's acceptable to outsource, then it should be
legal to hire _within the US_ for the same salary. Let Americans make $2/hour
if that is the acceptable rate.

~~~
winstonewert
Why do you think Americans should get these jobs over Fillipinos?

~~~
mistermann
One "reason" would be that FB derives the most _income_ from the US,
especially compared to the US. They certainly benefit from the US education
system, which at least in part benefits from the infrastructure and social
environment in the US that was created and paid for over a long period of time
by essentially all Americans.

In the past, you wouldn't even have to ask this question, you would employ
Americans as a matter of principle, as a matter of pride, to give back and
reinforce this shared infrastructure and society for the benefit of future
generations.

But then, none of this really matters in the new and improved globalist every
man for himself world. (While the executives preach the virtues of socialist
values.)

~~~
mistermann
"especially compared to the the Philippines"

------
ChoGGi
Hard to call this news

[http://gawker.com/5885714/inside-facebooks-outsourced-
anti-p...](http://gawker.com/5885714/inside-facebooks-outsourced-anti-porn-
and-gore-brigade-where-camel-toes-are-more-offensive-than-crushed-heads)

[https://www.wired.com/2014/10/content-
moderation/](https://www.wired.com/2014/10/content-moderation/)

------
eswat
The low wage isn’t surprising given the typical take-home pay in the
Philippines. But it’s a force multiplier in depressing work when they have to
filter through a lot of material that’s potentially traumatizing to a moderate
Filipino that’s probably not mentally fit to handle this.

~~~
pmorici
Frankly the amount of traumatizing material they are exposed to is probably
pretty low. They aren't watching this materiel start to finish by the articles
own admission they only have a few seconds to make a judgement. 99% of
terrorist propaganda videos can be spotted by only watching the first few
frames of video. They all have the same music / tone / symbolism.

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louithethrid
Imagine this is your only impression of the west- you go to work and get to
see 4chan as a constant stream on a daily basis, without the larger context.

My argument is that this outsourcing has a hidden cost, of radicalizing a
anti-western, anti-captialistic youth wherever it happens. This is not just
some shit-job exported- this is a problem creator at its finest.

This is hurting progress in this countrys. This is supporting religions who
where constantly in decline. Sorry facebook, this might be a solution for you,
but for the rest of humanity, this is a problem.

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pasta
This is not a news article, this is sugar for the brain.

They are 'forced' to do the job?

They only get paid $'x' without any reference to local income?

Some workers work 6 days a week? Do they choose to do so to earn more?

This is very bad reporting and for me has near zero value.

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kartan
> Facebook employs hundreds of young Filipinos - some with limited English
> skills - to remove offensive and terror related material from the site

1984 was wrong on this one. The censorship doesn't come from an all
knowledgable goberment, but it comes from low-cost teenagers.

What impact is going to have into the global communications to introduce such
a specific bias? What impact is going to have in the psychology of these young
employees, that already live in a violent country?

~~~
bananaXbanana
These people don't make any individual decision. They have a word document in
front of them with official guidelines for any case.

~~~
kartan
> These people don't make any individual decision.

Yes, they have. If it were possible to fully automate the task, Facebook will
not hire humans. From the article: "The moderators have to check posts that
have been flagged up and make a snap judgement on whether they should be taken
down.". Some videos are probably easy to identify, but the world is a scale of
grays.

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burkaman
For reference, the average household income in the Phillipines in 2015 was
22,000 pesos per month ([https://psa.gov.ph/content/average-family-
income-2015-estima...](https://psa.gov.ph/content/average-family-
income-2015-estimated-22-thousand-pesos-monthly-results-2015-family-income)).
Regardless, 48 hours a week of this sounds like a horrible job at any salary.

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ouid
Can anyone compare this to average pay for outsourced unskilled labor?

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beedogs
I'm pretty much done with Facebook for good. They simply don't give a shit
about the rampant racism, sexism, and homophobia going on all over their site.
Reporting comments gets you nowhere. Calling out these idiots gets you banned.
And now, come to find out, they're paying their moderators subsistence wages
to do all the work of policing the place. I'm moving on.

------
cttet
Poor Butters

