What you don’t see

0:00Welcome to Tech Life on the BBC World Service, the programme about technology and how it's changing all our lives. I'm Chris Valance. This week, a former worker at a social media moderation hub in Ghana tells us of the battle to protect us all from graphic social media posts and the toll he believes it took on his mental health. Also, as extreme weather becomes more common, how do you keep electricity grids running? One Caribbean island may have the answer. And we bid goodbye to a veteran's service that connected the world, albeit with a few glitches. We hear your memories of Skype as it finally hangs up for good.

0:56There's a constant battle going on behind the scenes when we use social media. It's the battle to keep the most awful, most distressing content out of our feeds. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is used to catch some of the worst content. But there are also armies of people called moderators around the world who review potentially harmful posts and make sure the most violent, graphic and illegal content isn't seen by users. One of the companies which does this is called Teleperformance. They provide moderation services for Facebook and Instagram. But now a digital rights group is considering legal action against the companies after they got reports from employees on the working conditions.

1:41After a joint investigation from The Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism first revealed these allegations, I spoke to a man who used to work for teleperformance in Ghana. In order to protect his identity, we're calling him Solomon and his words are voiced by one of our BBC colleagues. Just a note before we go on, the next interview will contain some descriptions of extremely distressing content seen by moderators and a reference to suicide. If you'd rather skip this bit, the interview will last for about six minutes. I expect that I'll be happy with the job that I'm going to work and I didn't expect the work to be this distressful and disturbing for me.

2:23When I first arrived there, I was very happy because it was my first experience abroad, working abroad from East Africa. So I expected many good things from the job. But what comes was the other way round. What did they tell you the job would involve? To be honest with you, when I first got to the screening session, I didn't know about what content moderation is. And they told us that you are going to join one of the tech companies operating in the world. It's only after I arrived there and I started training and after I started actioning the tickets that I became familiar with the job. Before that, I have no clue of what we are going to do.

3:04And so, you know, you start your first day. What kind of content are you having to deal with? Yeah, for the first few days, I was coming across some texts and some normal content like comments, some hate speeches. They were not, you know, disturbing at all. But gradually, after some days, after some weeks, when the days go, I start coming across very disturbing content, like beheadings, like people being stabbed. What kind of, I mean, did you have to watch a significant amount of the content? Or could you just sort of flick away once you'd identified that it broke the rules? No, we are not allowed to skip a given ticket.

3:49Once we come across a ticket, we have to action on it. At least we have to watch it for 15 seconds. So it's a must for us to watch, whether it is graphic content, whether it is child abuse. And viewing that content, I mean, what kind of effect did it have on you? It must have been distressing. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a very interesting question. For the first few days, I was very disturbed. I was coming across and watching such kind of content. This was very disturbing for me. It was very disturbing. But gradually, when I became used to it, I start normalizing even when people are slotted. I look at my computer and I start, you know, making fun out of it.

4:33When people are skinned alive, I stare at my computer and I start enjoying and laughing. And I start asking myself, I mean, is it normal to look at this kind of disturbing content? and to make it normal? And I reply, no, it's not. Solomon told me his mental health continued to deteriorate until an incident where he broke a mirror and a window in the company accommodation where he lived. He says this was after he had heard that a friend from home had been killed. As a result of this incident, teleperformance suspended him. And it was during this time, he says, that he attempted to take his own life.

5:13After turning down another non-moderator role in the company because, he says, it was worse pay, his contract was terminated and he was sent back to his home country. Teleperformance says it has continued to offer psychological support to Solomon in his home country, but he has declined that support. Do you feel it changed you working there? It changed me a lot. I don't believe in humanity right now. I was not this kind of person. I start, you know, saying that, yeah, man is cruel and the human being is not good at all. So this is, you know, it's affecting me a lot negatively. Do you think, did you feel that you were doing an important job when you were moderating the content?

5:59Yeah, I used to consider myself like a soldier, you know, a soldier who is fighting in the battlefield for the sake of others' lives and the sake of others' safety. Because what if I was not there? And what if one graphic content come to one of my brother or one of my relatives? So I was there protecting all meta users from not being exposed to certain kind of disturbing content and so on. For people in the West who use social media, who use meta products, what do you want them to know about the people who do the job that you do? Our job is very difficult. And yeah, we are striving. We are sacrificing our mental health and our overall well-being for the sake of the well-being of the users.

6:44So the people throughout the world will have to know this reality, that we are there to protect the users. But we are not being treated in the way that we deserve to be treated. We are sacrificing many things. The words there of Solomon, as we are calling him. Supporting the moderators are Foxglove, a digital rights campaign group based in the UK. Their co-executive director, Martha Dark, travelled to Ghana and met with some of the moderators. They're also working with Ghanaian lawyer Carla Olympio, as they are considering legal action. You'll hear from Carla first, then Martha. I was actually quite surprised when I found out that there was a whole content moderation hub in Accra.

7:28There's a bit of fanfare, you know, when there's any of these new kind of tech jobs, the concept being that it's going to give jobs to people. So the fact that they came in so quietly and people don't really know is curious. The content moderators, even though their employment contract is with one of these outsourcing companies, they spend all day working on Facebook content on moderating to Meta's policies and standards. And what did the moderators that you met tell you about the impact of the work on them? We met with people with very serious mental health conditions because of the work, whether that's post-traumatic stress disorder or insomnia or depression and other things.

8:11Viewing the content that they're looking at over and over again without the right care in place really does impact people's mental health. The moderator that we spoke to are educated. They have degrees. They want to be upwardly mobile. while they're excited to get work in the tech industry, you know, they're told broadly the nature of the work that they were going to do, it's clear that they were not aware in advance of just how emotionally and psychologically taxing this could be. Teleperformance say they provide robust psychological support, employee resilience testing and training, and employee wellbeing programmes.

8:50Does that match what the moderators were telling you? It absolutely doesn't match with what content moderators have been telling us. Content moderators receive what's called wellness support, which is not support from trained doctors, trained psychiatric physicians, which is, I think, what is needed to make sure this work is safe and doesn't cause harm to those doing it. And the impact that we see on people's mental health is reflective of that. you're seeking to bring legal action what will you be attempting to achieve with that legal action my perspective as a lawyer in Ghana is that obviously the working conditions of our clients need to be improved if people have been laid off improperly whether that's unlawfully or unfairly they need to be compensated for that and they have to take into account the hazardous nature of the work and ensure that their employees are given adequate support and that there's enough health and safety, you know, risk mitigation, just as there would be, you know, Ghana, there's a lot of mining, there's a large mining industry.

9:57There are very high standards of health and safety. People work in those industries, they are very well paid because it takes into account the level of hazard that they face. And there are very, very stringent guidelines on protecting the workers from injury, both physical and otherwise. How do you respond to people who say, well, look, these are good jobs. You know, there's a risk here that an industry that is providing people with work is, if you like, closed down within Ghana and the loss of jobs that results. The idea that the option is either a bad job or no job is not a genuine choice. But there are all kinds of multinational companies, you know, hugely profitable multinational companies that are working in Ghana from fast moving consumer goods to mining companies to telephone companies.

10:50And they understand the need to adhere to the rules, including the rules and the laws around labor and employment. You also have to show the people who are your potential clients and your actual clients that you respect them and you respect, you know, the nature of work here. So I don't think they can get away with it. Carla Olympio and Martha Dark there. Well, we approached the firms involved to hear what they had to say in response. Tech Life's producer Imran Rahman-Jones has been reviewing their replies. Imran, let's start with Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram. What did they say? Hi, Chris.

11:29Yeah, so Meta says it takes the well-being of moderators very seriously and requires outsourcing companies to provide staff with 24-hour support with trained practitioners. And they also say they require the companies which moderate Facebook and Instagram to pay above the industry standards in the areas they operate. And they add the content reviewers are encouraged to take the time they need to come to a decision over content. And what about Teleperformance, the outsourcing company who Solomon worked for? Well, we have been trying to get a response from them, but still have not heard back. They have given statements, though, to the Guardian newspaper, which is the newspaper that first ran this story.

12:09They said they're fully transparent from the start of the interview process on what the job will involve. And they say they provide employee training and resilience testing and a fully licensed psychologist to support the content moderators. And their statement also spoke about Solomon, the name we've given to the man you heard earlier. Yeah, I'll just read out directly some of what they told the Guardian newspaper. They said,

13:02And then they continue. During his employment and afterward, we continued offering the employee psychological support, which he has repeatedly declined. At the suggestion of his brother, so that family could help provide the employee with support, and with the approval of medical counsel, we provided the employee with his flight back to his home country. We have continued to offer the employee psychological support in his home country, however he's declined the support. Instead, he's tried to extort teleperformance for money under threat of going to the media. And I think we should say that that last point is something that Solomon disputes when we spoke to him.

13:42Thank you, Imran. And if you've been affected by some of the issues discussed, you can search online for BBC Action Line in the UK or Befriend Us if you live outside of the UK.

14:05You're listening to Tech Life on the BBC World Service with me, Chris Vallance. If you've any insight to share about that last item on Moderators, do please get in touch. It's an industry that thousands of people work in around the world, supporting social media and AI firms, and we'd like to hear from those involved in it. And if you've been listening over the last few editions, you'll know we've been hearing from lots of you about the tech you use in your everyday lives and couldn't do without. Marie got in touch with us from the US. She's a librarian and uses something called an ILS, an integrated library system.

14:43That's the software which helps catalogue all the books in the library and track loans and returns. Fascinating. And I promise I will return that book, Marie. Tell us about the tech you use every day. WhatsApp us on plus 44 330 1230 320 or email techlife at bbc.co.uk. Still to come, we say goodbye to Skype.

15:11In 2017, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. It devastated the Caribbean island's electrical infrastructure. People went months without power, no more so than in the countryside. With daylight, the extent of the damage in Puerto Rico is becoming clear, and it's obvious that many here have lost almost everything. But a small community centre in the mountain town of Adjantas was back online within days. Now Casa Pueblo, the organisation behind the microgrid, is opening an innovation lab and inviting scientists from around the world to come and develop new energy models. TechLife's Ben de Rico has been speaking to the organisation executive director, Dr Arturo Masson.

15:57And Ben asked him to explain Casa Pueblo's history and its mission. We got organized in 1980 when my parents were and the community got confronted with an open street mining proposal. So from protesting for the protection of the natural resources, we evolved to proposing alternative and assuming the responsibilities of those proposals. So after that point, we transformed that space into Bosque del Pueblo, a protected land. And we told the government we want to be the main stakeholders and community management of natural resources. So Casa Pueblo does quite a bit. You have a community center, a cinema, a radio station.

16:41You run cultural and environmental programs. And all of that now is powered by your solar panel microgrid. So why was managing your own energy so important? So we have been operating with solar power since 1999. We realized that the fossil fuel economy was the greatest threat to natural resource conservation and for the protection of biodiversity. So at that point, we said, let's do solar because it makes sense here in Puerto Rico. People thought that we were crazy. It was very expensive. But I have to tell you, it was the greatest investment of Casa Pueblo back then in 1999. We upgraded the system in 2007 and we reached like 50 percent energy independence.

17:29And by 2017, we upgraded again and we reached at last full energy security and self-sufficiency. So when Jurek and Maria struck Puerto Rico and everyone was without power, Casa Pueblo had energy resilience and we were able to bounce back right away. You've been developing other projects around Puerto Rico. One of them is called Adjuntas Pueblo Solar, Adjuntas the Solar Village. Can you describe that a little bit to me and what that project entails? What we have been doing is we started with Casa Pueblo, and then we started to do houses like Casa Pueblo, and we have done like 200 houses. Then we have done energy for economic activation, the barbershop to reduce the operational cost and other businesses.

18:22We have done for food security, grocery stores around the downtown Anuntas. And then we have done the energy security for communication, the radio and the transmission tower for entertainment, the solar cinema for critical infrastructure. We have done the fire station, the emergency unit, the three elderly homes. It's a new landscape for the municipality as a reference of what can be done in other parts of Puerto Rico. How do you see this model expanding in Puerto Rico and maybe even outside of the island? What we're announcing right now is the creation of the Living Energy Innovation Laboratory.

19:09So the idea is to transform what is being done in Adjuntas as a research campus in which other universities, people, communities from Puerto Rico, Latino America, the U .S. can come to Adjuntas for education, capacity building, for research and innovation, for testing new technologies side by side and see how they perform. The idea is to open what we're doing and provide them with a learning experience in a non-traditional institution. Dr. Masol, thank you so much for speaking with me today. You're welcome. And thanks to TechLife's Ben DiRico there. We did ask Puerto Rico's energy department for a comment, but we've not yet had a response.

20:08Does that sound familiar? If it does, it means you are probably one of the millions of people who use Skype, but its distinctive dialing tones will not be heard again. The service which popularised voice and video calls over the internet closed on Monday. TechLife's Graham Fraser has been organising something of a wake, and he's here in the studio. Hello, Chris. Yes, Skype ended this week, and I think in short, The reason for it was because Microsoft, who owns Skype, they wanted to concentrate on its Teams feature rather than having both Teams and Skype. But Skype was one of the most popular websites in the world for many years.

20:48And it just fell away over the years, though, didn't it? Yeah, I have mixed memories of it. I think I'll put it that way. I remember when it first came to the BBC and we started sort of exploring using it as a broadcasting tool. And, of course, it had some benefits. You know, if it worked well over the internet, you had a good internet connection, you got a call that was much better quality than a phone line. I seem to remember doing, oh, 40 odd minutes of broadcasting, I think, at MIT, and it working perfectly for all that time. But then, of course, on the other side of the coin, you know, you'd ring people up and you'd just get a glitch festival.

21:25I mean, you were dropping out, you know, and then you'd, you know, you'd have to abandon it and stick with something more old fashioned. but it did sort of educate us a little bit in that sort of world of Zoom that we all experienced during the pandemic. Absolutely. I mean, I remember when the pandemic first hit the UK in March 2020. I remember the first time I ever had a Zoom party, as they came to be known, and we did it over Skype. But within a couple of weeks, we weren't using Skype. We were using Zoom. We were using other platforms because it just had better functionality. And I think Zoom became the byword for the pandemic rather than Skype, which had been around for many years.

22:06But during its two decades or so, it has helped people build connections and you've been hearing from them. Absolutely, yes. So I've been speaking to some of the people whose lives were impacted by Skype. Unlimited high quality calling over the web. Plug in a pair of headsets and within minutes, you can talk to any other Skype user anywhere at no charge. When it first started in 2003, Skype was revolutionary. Here is 82-year-old Kath Wilkie from Edinburgh, Scotland, as she tried out the technology for the very first time on the BBC's The Money programme in 2005.

22:42Michael Owen speaking. Michael, it's Kath. Hello. Oh, Kath, how are you? I'm fine, dear. I'm a nervous wreck here. No, I'm not. Isn't this incredible what you can do now with a computer? Skype even helped love blossom as long-distance relationships were transformed by video calls. Wang Williams is from China and moved to Camarthonshire in Wales for an internship in 2012. While she was there, she met Owen. At first, they were just friends, but after Wang returned to Macau, their connection grew over months of Skype chats as well as visits to see one another. After we started dating, we just used Skype every single day to chat with each other.

23:22But on his birthday, I ordered a cake to send to his home. We were using Skype to celebrate his birthday, and then he was cutting a cake in front of me, in front of Skype. So it was, that was quite sweet. The pair ultimately got engaged, and Weng moved back to Wales in 2015. They are now happily married. Here is Owen. There is a bit of sadness, because it was such an important part of our life for two and a half years, and it really helped provide the glue that could keep us together over such a long distance. For some, Skype was also a way to say goodbye. This is the story of Erica from New Zealand, who spoke to the BBC anonymously.

24:07Erica's husband died in 2017. When she was clearing out his computer, she came across their Skype messages to one another. Erica told me how these messages had inadvertently documented a period of distress and heartache in their relationship. What she did next was to try and bring some closure to this difficult period in her life. She sent a message to his Skype account and then she replied as if she was her husband. Erica had this conversation for weeks. She told me, in this exchange we responded to each other's messages and questions with all the apologies and regret that we needed to hear from each other.

24:43It helped me move on, she said. Skype fell away in recent years as competitors emerged and innovated. For those who used it for cheap international calls, Skype remained a key tool. Since 2003, Susan Bertotti has lived in Chile. Skype has been her way of keeping in touch with her mum, Vera, who lives in Milton Keynes in England. Vera is now 99. Here is Susan, speaking to me from her home in Chile. It's going to be a huge loss to me, not to mention, you know, the financial cost. I'll be back to making long-distance calls now on her behalf, and that'll be horrible. I'm so disappointed about losing Skype.

25:26Skype's owners Microsoft have now retired most of it, as it wants its customers to use its Teams feature instead. Skype for Business will continue. For most of us, though, one of the most recognisable tech products of this century has gone. And thanks there to TechLive's Graham Fraser for that crystal clear report. Well, it's almost time to hang up the call on this week's edition of Tech Life. If you've a fond memory of Skype, do let us know, or tell us about a piece of tech you simply can't do without. Our email is techlife at bbc.co.uk, or you can WhatsApp us on plus 44 330 1230 320. Remember to say who you are and where you're messaging from.

26:14This week's show was produced by Imran Rahman-Jones, edited by Monica Soriano, and presented by me, Chris Fallons.