“Some people are not fast decision-makers. He rebuffed former moderators who said they lacked sufficient time to consider the severity of a particular item. While the experiences reported by Gaggle’s moderator team resemble those of social media platforms like Meta-owned Facebook, Patterson said his company relies on “U.S.-based, U.S.-cultured reviewers as opposed to outsourcing that work to India or Mexico or the Philippines,” as the social media giant does. Gaggle executives have sought to downplay contractors’ role with the company, arguing that they use “common sense” to distinguish false flags generated by the algorithm from potential threats and do “not require substantial training.” Gaggle content moderators encompass as many as 600 contractors at any given time, and just two dozen work as employees who have access to benefits and on-the-job training that lasts several weeks. Contractors lacked benefits, including mental health care, and one former moderator said he quit after repeated exposure to explicit material that so disturbed him he couldn’t sleep, and without “any money to show for what I was putting up with.” Once hired, moderators reported insufficient safeguards to protect students’ sensitive data, a work culture that prioritized speed over quality, scheduling issues that sent them scrambling to get hours, and frequent exposure to explicit content that left some traumatized. Gaggle founder and CEO Jeff Patterson has warned about “a tsunami of youth suicide headed our way” and said that schools have “a moral obligation to protect the kids on their digital playground.” “It wasn’t enough money, and you’re really stuck there, staring at the computer, reading and just click, click, click, click.”Ĭontent moderators like Waskiewicz, hundreds of whom are paid just $10 an hour on month-to-month contracts, are on the front lines of a company that claims it saved the lives of 1,400 students last school year and argues that the growing mental health crisis makes its presence in students’ private affairs essential. “In all honesty, I was sort of half-assing it,” Waskiewicz admitted in an interview with The 74. Gaggle’s moderators face pressure to review 300 incidents per hour, and Waskiewicz knew she could get fired on a moment’s notice if she failed to distinguish mundane chatter from potential safety threats in a matter of seconds. But mostly, the low pay, the fight for decent hours, inconsistent instructions, and stiff performance quotas left her feeling burned out. Though she felt “a little bit like a voyeur,” she believed Gaggle helped protect kids. As a result, kids’ deepest secrets-like nude selfies and suicide notes-regularly flashed onto Waskiewicz’s screen.