Spanish moderators on Facebook say they treat them worse than their English counterparts

For many years, Facebook moderators employed by third-party contractors have sought to expose poor working conditions, and their disagreement escalated during the pandemic, as did many. forced to return to the office with few safety nets. But Spanish-speaking moderators say they are treated worse than English-speaking colleagues.

Richardson (Texas) at Genpact, Meta’s subcontractor’s office, Spanish moderators told BuzzFeed News that they should report to the office by April 2021, despite COVID infections rising with Delta and Omicron variants appearing. Across the US. During this time, they said, moderators reviewing English content were allowed to take three-month shifts out of the office.

“Being in the office … it’s been a nightmare,” one moderator said.

BuzzFeed News spoke with three members of Genpact’s Mexican marketing team, who described the abusive treatment of Spanish moderators. All of these people spoke on condition of anonymity, as Genpact required them to sign non-disclosure agreements and feared their job. They said that in the last nine months, while English members can work in the office while working from home, the Spanish moderator maintains unrealistic performance standards and is not compensated for working in both languages, which they say. it requires more time. In addition, in the midst of COVID’s active case threat, they face pressure to manage the long-criticized Facebook market.

Danielle D’Angelo, a spokeswoman for Genpact, declined to comment on any specific claims made by Spanish moderators, including that the Mexican market group was not allowed to work from home while other groups took turns.

“We want to emphasize that worker safety is our top priority and that this has been and will continue to be the case throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” D’Angelo said. “Decisions to return to the customer’s office are based on best safety and health practices and local regulations. In all of our workplaces, including our office in Richardson, TX, we follow the highest standards of safety, with frequent antigen testing. “.

On Thursday, Genpact’s Richardson site managers told company agents that it had ruled out plans to reopen it to a 50% content on Jan. 31 because of the Omicron variant. According to the Spanish moderators, this change does not affect them, and they will continue to complain in the office. Genpact declined when it plans to open and on what content.

In late June, Genpact management sent an email to one of the groups of English moderators who were allowed to leave the office, thanking them for their “continued dedication and response.” The email said they would return home from work on July 26th.

Spanish-speaking moderators told BuzzFeed News that they had not received such an email. I told the English moderators they could come home in a few days, “[managers] he told us that we were a specialized queue, and that our work could not be done outside the office, ”said one moderator, noting that the Mexican market often involves moderating the flood of graphic content. Facebook declined to comment on Spanish moderators’ complaints, citing BuzzFeed News Genpact – a strategy it has repeatedly taken to address the concerns of people who moderate Facebook content.

Since returning to the Richardson office, employees have become increasingly fearful for their safety. Moderators told BuzzFeed News in December that 30 COVID cases had been reported to management by staff, and that no updates had been reported since. Meanwhile, staff say their co-workers continue to test positive for COVID, citing two cases on one floor last week. Genpact has declined to comment on the number of COVID cases in its office or the frequency with which it informs staff of such cases.

On December 22, a dozen Spanish moderators left the office en masse after learning through a grape that a sick colleague had contracted the virus. Employees now say that Genpact does not offer paid sick leave to moderators, so they used PTO to self-isolate. Genpact refused to grant moderators paid sick leave.

Despite being nominated for the Mexican market, this group examines Facebook and Instagram content posted in Spanish by most Latin American users, according to moderators. From 2018, they were 84 million Facebook users In Mexico, and tens of millions more using WhatsApp. In the Latino and Spanish-speaking communities, Facebook has been strong misinformation vector, Shaping the public’s perception of COVID, election policy, and issues such as the Black Lives Matter. But researchers are studying misinformation said the Guardian compared to English-language publications, less harmful content published in Spanish is removed.

Members told BuzzFeed News that Genpact has begun building this group in early 2020, recruiting volunteers from other departments that were in the early stages.

“Genpact has issued a Spanish-language test to anyone with a remote Hispanic name, and asked them to do it again if they failed,” a moderator told BuzzFeed News on condition of anonymity, fearing revenge for public speaking. internal affairs.

Staff say the moderators, who were not fluent in Spanish, were forced to take on the role as a result and many did not live up to their expectations and were later released. Today, the Mexican market group is made up of about 50 people.

But even those who are fluent in Spanish feel overwhelmed by what they consider to be disproportionate standards. For example, moderators are expected to maintain an 85% accuracy rate while maintaining a 66-second “management time” or content decision time interval. While these thresholds may make sense for one language, navigating both languages ​​may take longer. Moderators say Facebook’s guidelines, which are only available in English, must be translated into Spanish before they can be applied. Numerous publications by users in Mexico and Latin America also include English, forcing them to switch regularly from one language to another. Genpact declined to comment on how Spanish moderators are evaluated and paid. Facebook has not responded to a question about the language in which its instructions are provided.

The pandemic has caused Facebook moderators in several subcontractors to organize around a number of issues, such as paid leave, risk pay, and a class system that separates contract workers from salaried technology employees. Last week, Accenture suddenly allowed its Facebook moderators to work from home after initially ordering them to return to the office. After a BuzzFeed News consultation.

Even Facebook has never publicly revealed how many users it has in Latin America, its platforms and applications to function as an indispensable utility for the citizens of many of these countries. This pressure is felt by the Spanish-speaking moderators of Genpact, despite the high importance of their jobs, saying that it is the smallest office group.

Facebook spokeswoman Kadia Koroma said the company uses a “combination of technology and people” from our platform to maintain content that violates our rules, and although AI has made strides in this space, people are a key part of our security efforts. The company said that Spanish is one of the most used languages ​​on Facebook and that Spanish reviews are conducted 24 hours a day on various sites around the world.

The moderators who returned to the office in April thought that was the case Central Mexican elections, which were held in June. “We thought well, okay, let the election pass,” one moderator said. During 2021, English moderators took turns. The Mexican market team thought it would be the same for them.

“Then we had to take turns a week earlier, we received an email saying,‘ Thank you for the work, but unfortunately the Mexican market will continue to do so, ’” they added. Facebook declined to comment on how it interacts with subcontractors that manage specific moderation markets.

“We know this work can be difficult, which is why we work closely with our partners to continually evaluate how best to help these teams,” Koroma said.