alt.hn

2/5/2026 at 10:55:11 PM

India's female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI

 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/feb/05/in-the-end-you-feel-blank-indias-female-workers-watching-hours-of-abusive-content-to-train-ai

by thisislife2

2/6/2026 at 12:06:56 PM

I long time ago, I was operating a "social network" which allowed image uploads. (India local, didn't amount to much as was shutdown.).

Immediately at launch, we started having a huge amount of (image) pron being uploaded into the pages. We put in some rate limits etc, but did not want to put any major restrictions of user signups etc as that would hurt signup figures (important to the ceo!).

We already had some content review people thru a temp agency on site, so we checked with them and they were fine doing this manual filtering of these images for us. All young (early 20s) women. While my team built a quick "dashboard" for them to be able to do this image filtering quickly and conveniently, I had a detailed conversation with them as I was very concerned about having them review this kinda stuff for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Truly nasty stuff.

They were _perfectly_ clear that they had no issues with it, and they told me in so many words to not give it a second thought and to let them get back to work.

It was a surprise, but it was a point of realization: there are much worse things they could be doing. And looking a porn has shock value only the first time. I was under-estimating these women and assuming they were some "snowflakes" who could not deal with something this silly and non-threatening.

Just my own person anec-data.

by ghoul2

2/6/2026 at 2:15:25 PM

It's good that you warned them in advance, but I don't think "there are much worse things they could be doing" really is a reason to discard those who are hurt by this as "snowflakes" and the content they're exposed to as "silly and non-threatening." From what you're saying, there's also a big difference between what you were dealing with and what this article is talking about: in your case it was only still images, and only "regular" porn (and I assume they probably had to monitor every image posted if it was "a long time ago" so overall they were not exposed only to that content); in this case they're reviewing videos content including not only porn but also violence and sexual abuse, that was pre-flagged by an AI so with way less rule-abiding content mixed in.

by ura_yukimitsu

2/6/2026 at 6:21:35 PM

People butcher livestock for pay on a daily basis, rendering a live animal dead and cutting it to bits, on a massive scale to provide the food that we eat. Rescue and medical personnel deal with the injured, ill, and dying on a daily basis on a massive scale. Merely watching videos, even of disturbing material, doesn't even come close to being as bad as those and some other professions.

by ThrowawayR2

2/6/2026 at 11:21:01 PM

I think watching children being butchered or prisoners being tortured to death could be equally or more traumatic. Killing in processing animals is at least socially acceptable and (arguably) necessary for survival.

by tomcam

2/6/2026 at 7:49:47 PM

The massive over-reaction and pearl-clutching surrounding "seeing stuff on a screen" today is really bizarre. I think Meehl called this kind of thinking in therapy the "spun-glass theory of mind", i.e. that people are so fragile and easy to damage that you have to shelter them from even the mildest of harms. Yes, images and videos can be horrific, but that horror absolutely pales in comparison to what the world has to offer. Plus, plenty who grew up in the early era of the internet and who saw shit on 4chan know that seeing horrifying things on a screen does not have to be some kind of trauma. You just reported the post and hid it, and moved on.

And the horror of a thing is not actually solely a property of the thing. Different people are affected differently by different things. People the most upset and making the most grandiose claims about how damaging these things are are often projecting their own weakness / engaging in typical mind fallacy. They would do well to provide data to quantify and/or support their claims of the degree of harm here.

by D-Machine

2/6/2026 at 9:56:36 PM

> Yes, images and videos can be horrific, but that horror absolutely pales in comparison to what the world has to offer.

"Eat your dinner, there's kids starving in Africa."

by pavel_lishin

2/7/2026 at 5:13:39 AM

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46921505

by rramadass

2/7/2026 at 5:28:37 AM

As I've said, images can be horrific, and some people can be traumatized by them. That must not be dismissed.

However, It is also important to carefully and properly quantify these things and not sensationalize. You've linked a 50+ minute documentary, without comment, that seems to prove that one person hired to curate content can become traumatized by that process. I can't be certain that is what it is about, because I will not waste time watching documentaries (the vast majority of which are outright propaganda or incredibly biased, while pretending to be objective), but still, I've no doubt the general claim is true, since I never claimed or believed otherwise.

But you've not provided meaningful statistical or scientific evidence properly quantifying such harms in general.

by D-Machine

2/6/2026 at 2:32:53 PM

The alternative is…. They don’t have a job?

What else is going to happen?

For many people, the alternatives can literally be death, wading unprotected through human excrement, sold into defacto slavery, etc. etc.

AI can do some of it (now), but largely isn’t going to be more accurate and still needs humans to double check its work.

by lazide

2/6/2026 at 2:51:33 PM

I really don't think it's fair to minimize someone's struggles just because their situation could be worse. Is only the most miserable person on the planet (by what metric anyway?) allowed to complain about their condition?

I also don't think it's fair to exploit people who are in terrible situations by pushing jobs we don't want onto them, pay them a handful of crumbs, and then say they should be happy with what they get because their neighbor who does another job gets half a handful of crumbs.

by ura_yukimitsu

2/6/2026 at 3:17:45 PM

The women in this situation aren’t complaining. Very much the opposite.

Why the compulsion to paternalistically ‘protect’ everyone even to the point of making them unemployed? I assume they weighed their options and decided this was the best one. It sounds like you want to stop them from doing that?

Isn’t that the real minimization?

by lazide

2/6/2026 at 3:55:20 PM

You're misrepresenting both what the article says and what I wrote.

The article explicitly mentions that the jobs aren't clearly labeled so they couldn't weigh their options beforehand, that concerns raised by the workers are being dismissed by management, and that several workers have developed mental health problems.

I'm not arguing that these women should be "protected" by taking their jobs away or that they can't make their own choices; of course they're weighing their options and deciding accordingly (the article even mentions that some of them decided to leave). But it's not unreasonable to critique a system where the only choices they have are all horrible in (often more than) one way or another.

by ura_yukimitsu

2/6/2026 at 4:09:16 PM

I’m responding to the gp comment, which I thought was obvious

by lazide

2/6/2026 at 5:51:23 PM

I actually had a conversation about this with my mom. We were talking about the hotel cleaners in Dubai walking around with toothbrushes to clean the shower which seemed mildly ridiculous to our European eyes.

But we came to the realisation that these folks were probably happy that they could send money back to their villages. And we left a nice tip.

by TitaRusell

2/7/2026 at 1:00:39 AM

Risk of developing trauma or mental illness is probably much lower for shower cleaners than CSAM / gore filters.

by paulryanrogers

2/6/2026 at 3:18:51 PM

There is plenty of productive work to do in the world that isn’t streaming through the dregs of the internet for hours on end.

This argument is a false dichotomy.

by 4MOAisgoodenuf

2/6/2026 at 3:21:52 PM

I take it you’ve never lived in India? Visited Pakistan or Bangladesh?

Plenty of people would (literally) kill for those jobs, and have no other useful employment.

In those countries, Women are often widely forbidden from doing most jobs, which makes them particularly vulnerable.

by lazide

2/7/2026 at 1:04:14 AM

Wouldn't it be better to give women more choice in general and the option of therapy if they take on a job with a risk of PTSD? Dismissing the concerns of the women actually doing the work isn't making things any better.

by paulryanrogers

2/6/2026 at 3:27:59 PM

wow, this is absolute peak privilege of someone sheltered.

by calendar938

2/6/2026 at 8:27:45 PM

It's modern slavery.

Just because it's beneficial for them doesn't mean they are getting exploited.

Looking at porn or something similar or actually really bad , changes people.

Even if it means they get a lot more insensitive

by aaaalone

2/7/2026 at 1:06:08 AM

IMO it's only slavery if they truly have no other options. Which, if true, is also worth addressing.

by paulryanrogers

2/6/2026 at 10:19:57 PM

While one can blame corporations, the most blame lands on the Indian government(s). Decades and decades of corrupt local, state, and central governance has led to dire poverty and high levels of unemployment. The current and past leaders have had no care to fix it, and it’s only getting worse. Their incompetence is what creates these kinds of jobs as alternatives to abject poverty and death.

by yunohn

2/7/2026 at 4:54:20 AM

As an Indian living in India's Silicon Valley, I am calling BS on this.

"All young (early 20s) women" doing explicit content manual filtering is not normal. No Indian Family would allow their daughters (and sons) to take up such a job if they knew about it.

As the article itself points out, the workers are drawn in by non-explicit/non-pron image annotation and then switched to psychologically harmful work when they cannot leave due to job-needs/contracts-enforcement.

This is pure bait-and-switch scam which has severe psychological effects on the women (and men) involved and should not be blithely hand-waved away.

For a detailed understanding of the psychological harm of explicit image annotation see this documentary (not specific to India) The "Modern Day Slaves" Of The AI Tech World. Undercover reporter does annotation of explicit images for AI but is so traumatized by what he sees that he quits in two weeks. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPSZFUiElls

by rramadass

2/6/2026 at 4:02:52 AM

I’ve noticed that the type of people to have problems with these kind of jobs - people who think this is some type of neocolonialism - can not appreciate the difference between real material poverty and metaphysical problems with watching some abusive content.

This person is earning a really competitive wage. She’s getting the power and independence to lead a materially good life. This will trump every other metaphysical concern you can have by watching these abusive videos.

Some one has to moderate these videos and it’s great that it’s someone poor who’s getting the opportunity.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 3:21:26 PM

This argument is somewhat true in the small case (e.g. if you are starving and the only job for you is shoveling bodies into a furnace, may as well).

But I think the reason people have a problem is that giant multi-national corps have created a system where shoveling bodies into the furnace is the most profitable option for these desperate people.

The wealth available in the world right now is completely unfathomable, and its mostly going to ads, privacy invasion, burning massive amounts of energy to make fake videos and articles and more adware, etc. Its not wrong to think "is something wrong with having droves of poor people wading through our shit so they don't starve?"

Similar to how the coal mining companies were happy to watch miners die in the mines from blacklung, and their services were indeed useful, and they were quite proud of it. Its a complex issue because it was critical work at the time. However, only a little while later, we realize the system we had was broken and poisoning the planet, ourselves, and the workers. I'm sure many coal miners are remiss that they no longer can work the mines, and many companies would be happy to employ them if it was profitable enough, but ultimately its not a good system for anyone. And if I hear that "coal miners in high demand in China" I'm not going to say "oh I'm so glad they have employment" I'm going to ask "why aren't they using a clearly better alternative for those people?"

by program_whiz

2/6/2026 at 6:38:31 PM

"The wealth available in the world right now is completely unfathomable, and its mostly going to ads, privacy invasion, burning massive amounts of energy to make fake videos and articles and more adware, etc. Its not wrong to think "is something wrong with having droves of poor people wading through our shit so they don't starve?""

Why is the sole blame on countries other than India. We should be focusing on the government of India and why the system there creates a society with a much larger percentage of poverty than many other parts of the world.

"Similar to how the coal mining companies were happy to watch miners die in the mines from blacklung, and their services were indeed useful, and they were quite proud of it."

How is this similar? Nobody is dying from looking at terrible content.

"why aren't they using a clearly better alternative for those people?"

This article is about the better alternative. They aren't physically risking their lives every day to make a living.

by billy99k

2/6/2026 at 9:23:04 PM

> Why is the sole blame on countries other than India

You can blame India all you want; Modi is very much due for criticism, his political leadership is pitiful and merits no quarter from Western governments or otherwise.

But the Russian Federation doesn't care, they've got crude to process. The Knesset won't convene to denounce their enemy's enemy. The US loves buying cheap oil and siphoning Indian labor. They'll blame India right alongside you all day long, but they won't ever stop supporting their broken system. India's suffered from this for the better part of a century and it's becoming apparent that foreign influence is the issue.

by bigyabai

2/6/2026 at 5:24:58 PM

>> giant multi-national corps have created a system where

they didnt do by intention - "market forces" drove them there to do this, i.e. competition / costs etc.

by KellyCriterion

2/7/2026 at 1:09:07 AM

Governments allowed corporations to gain enough control that they are defacto states unto themselves. Some control more resources than mid-sized countries.

by paulryanrogers

2/6/2026 at 5:48:07 PM

> I’ve noticed that the type of people to have problems with these kind of jobs - people who think this is some type of neocolonialism - can not appreciate the difference between real material poverty and metaphysical problems with watching some abusive content.

I think THIS shows that you've never dealt with people in abject poverty. Just because you live in poverty doesn't mean you lack humanity.

People lie, cheat, steal, sell their bodies and kill to subsist in poverty. Whatever it takes to survive. That is totally separate from the toll that that type of surviving takes.

by John23832

2/6/2026 at 2:51:34 PM

It is true that employment and pay are good. The question is a) are proper protections in place for workers and b) does pay adequately compensate for traumatic stress. Studying the issue is valuable, particularly given the potential for labor exploitation given the power imbalance between the largest, most powerful organizations in the world and a labor base which as you point out could otherwise be disenfranchised.

I think with this info we can assess whether the wage is indeed competitive. Otherwise claiming "well they're getting paid" can be used to justify exploitative labor practices or negate the need for ethical inquiry.

Also calling psychological harm metaphysical is questionable. Is PTSD experienced by American troops coming back from deployment metaphysical? Not necessarily comparing these cases in degree.

I'm not sure what invoking neocolonialism adds to the discussion. Best to engage on a factual rather than ideological basis.

by louiereederson

2/6/2026 at 4:23:36 AM

I generally agree with the broader point you're making, but I also think there's nothing wrong with pointing out how messed up it is that that's the reality of the choice. The whole point of improving society is to eliminate this kind of dilemma

by lamename

2/6/2026 at 4:25:32 AM

It’s messed up that this has to be done. But overall positive change.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 4:26:48 AM

Why does it have to be done?

by pinnochio

2/6/2026 at 4:39:26 AM

Laws, primarily.

There's also a lot of content that companies don't want to host or show to their users in general.

by extraduder_ire

2/6/2026 at 4:29:08 AM

That poor people get the worst of the jobs? What’s the alternative?

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 4:30:47 AM

Who says this particular job is a necessary one?

by pinnochio

2/6/2026 at 4:40:06 AM

What’s your alternative?

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 4:51:38 PM

[dead]

by evsimonisretar

2/6/2026 at 9:46:31 AM

Jury duty for all online fora maybe?

by jhanschoo

2/6/2026 at 4:32:03 AM

Maybe social media for this content isn’t sustainable or wise?

by Spooky23

2/6/2026 at 4:43:52 AM

Maybe social media of the kind which creates this problem isn't sustainable or wise.

by pinnochio

2/6/2026 at 7:48:36 AM

You're talking about making the internet as a whole a view-only experience where all content is curated and made by trusted gatekeepers.

As long as a website allows user generated content, there will be this need to moderate it

by bryan_w

2/6/2026 at 7:56:07 PM

No, he's talking about the Internet of old, where if you wanted to post anything you first had to stand up a server.

by throwway120385

2/6/2026 at 10:10:09 PM

You’re saying there were no forum boards nor comment sections anywhere? And everyone self hosted every single piece of content they wished to send it into the world?

by yunohn

2/6/2026 at 4:36:12 PM

Because one could sell DDoS services that overload the target network with porn.

by gosub100

2/6/2026 at 4:30:25 AM

I think that it is grotesque to take some moral high ground while global companies are exploiting the most desperate workers that they can find. They don’t give a shit about poor people in India, they need people with marginal English language ability whom have little or no worker protections.

People will do what they have to do to survive. But this is hurting these people who long suffer long after the social media company’s contractor discards them.

by Spooky23

2/6/2026 at 5:23:30 AM

They might also be doing it for the sake of a better future for their children, not just for themselves.

by thunderbong

2/6/2026 at 4:38:56 AM

What’s your alternative? The people in villages are struggling without jobs and they are poor. They don’t even have food to put on their plate.

They make irrational decisions - don’t send their kids to school, make them work in farms. They are mentally stunted because of low quality food. They vote for idiots which stall progress even more.

You show concern but what is the alternative? Ask the capitalists for even more money?

by simianwords

2/7/2026 at 1:14:18 AM

> What’s your alternative?

Let women work the jobs, and laws mandating upfront transparency and mental health support. It shouldn't increase costs significantly and the benefits in human dignity will be more than worth it.

And don't stop working to make governments more honest, so other jobs can be established. Improve education so silly superstitions don't keep women locked out of large swathes of society and work.

by paulryanrogers

2/6/2026 at 10:52:51 AM

Ending world hunger isn’t that expensive: https://wfpusa.org/news/how-much-would-it-cost-to-end-world-...

Nvidia’s profit alone would’ve been more than enough to end world hunger by these estimates.

by ath92

2/6/2026 at 1:19:43 PM

this article is false

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 1:46:08 PM

Baseless accusation. The article is true of course.

by kelipso

2/6/2026 at 4:53:00 PM

[dead]

by evsimonisretar

2/6/2026 at 1:01:45 PM

Ask the capitalists for even more money?

yes, all that profit they are making should be invested into the future of our society. globally.

poor people don't send their kids to school because school costs money, which they don't have. school is an investment into the future. but you can't make an investment if you don't have anything to invest. which is why that investment needs to come from those who have the money.

by em-bee

2/6/2026 at 1:06:33 PM

so unless they give enough money, they should not be able to employ the people who need the employment?

You suggest that the state set minimum wage above what the lady already earns? She earns way more than minimum wage.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 1:57:56 PM

i am not necessarily agreeing with any of the opinions shared above. when someone jumps into a thread like i did this can easily be missed. so please forget all of that discussion, as it is not relevant to my argument. i am a different commenter.

what i am suggesting is that the only way to lead people out of poverty as a society is to heavily invest in education. paid for by taxing those that make all the profits. paid in such a way that sending children to school offsets the loss of income the family would have from letting the children work in the fields. (in some places in africa this works because the school is the only place where the kids get food.)

i am not suggesting that these jobs should go away. that's besides the point. i am not sharing any opinion about those jobs or the current situation.

what i am suggesting is that instead of arguing about the situation or complaining about those jobs, the best way to make life really better for these people is to improve their education.

the companies that provide these jobs could be contributing to that too by not only paying good salaries as they are but also directly investing into the building of schools, and making sending children to school a condition of employment.

by em-bee

2/6/2026 at 6:51:10 PM

You sound like Johnathan Swift satirically suggesting that the Irish sell their children to be eaten by their landlords.

by Spooky23

2/6/2026 at 1:47:22 PM

That's verging on a white man's burden kind of argument. We can help tackle global income disparity without telling poorer people that they should be happy we're offering them the jobs we don't want to do ourselves.

by AlecSchueler

2/6/2026 at 7:27:20 PM

Growth in manufacturing products for export, first in wrecked post-war Japan, then in Taiwan, and then in China, is what lifted all of them out of deep poverty into global powerhouses and technology leaders. You better believe that they were happy to have those jobs others didn't want and to capitalize on them to grow themselves.

by ThrowawayR2

2/6/2026 at 1:55:41 PM

We could but we don’t. Like, let’s buy artificial diamonds so kids in the Congo aren’t mining blood diamonds, but you never hear about the follow-up of helping those kids out of poverty. I’m all for ethical sourcing, but we are horrible at the other things we should be doing to alleviate poverty around the world.

I can see why many think that our global social activism would be better redirected at simply making poorer people less poor as opposed to their exploitation. It’s definitely a jaded view though.

by seanmcdirmid

2/6/2026 at 6:45:59 PM

"We can help tackle global income disparity "

As long as it doesn't involve just giving them money. This experiment has been done in Africa for as long as I can remember and there's only more poverty and a higher birth rate.

"without telling poorer people that they should be happy we're offering them the jobs we don't want to do ourselves"

A corrupt government is usually the reason a country doesn't prosper. There's no jobs because businesses end up just getting ripped off and move elsewhere (along with anyone smart). What's left is a broken infrastructure and abject poverty.

Until this is fixed, things will never change.

by billy99k

2/6/2026 at 4:11:09 AM

People who raise these concerns don't understand true poverty. They might have seen it during trips but don't really "grok" it. That's one place where the expression "First world problems" is relevant. Being able to pay for housing, food and some degree of safety is an immense improvement in life quality versus the previous state with poverty and no videos.

by glimshe

2/6/2026 at 4:19:35 AM

Maybe it's that we don't think people should be threatened with starvation to force them to perform degrading labor.

by whatshisface

2/6/2026 at 4:33:33 AM

I agree with you but disagree with how you phrased your comment. They aren't being threatened, they were either born into poverty/starvation or went into poverty. In their perspective (or at least some of them), they view it as a sacrifice to lead their families into a better life.

by sudo_cowsay

2/6/2026 at 4:38:49 AM

They aren’t being threatened. They are already starving and this is giving them an opportunity out.

by kortilla

2/6/2026 at 9:14:42 AM

I am thinking that giving them an opportunity is just a happy side effect. To big tech, they are the opportunity.

by nicbou

2/6/2026 at 4:48:51 AM

I think it's perfectly reasonable to have distaste for farming out unpleasant work to poorer countries. But also I think it's perfectly reasonable to accept that it's a fact of life and realise that it's literally redirecting wealth from the richest companies in the world to some of the poorer people in the world.

I'm more bothered by the fact that once again an article focuses on the plight of an identity deemed oppressed rather than broader concern for working classes. All it does is sell it as pandering rather than exposing a genuine issue. And as usual from the post-modern left, dividing rather than uniting. The article's entire justification for this is the absolute cop-out: >Women form half or more of this workforce.

As another example, I read an article the other day complaining about an advertising campaign from a colossal multinational company replacing the "o"s in London tube stop names with "0.0"s. Why? Not because of excessive corporate encroachment into public spaces, but because it might be confusing for disabled people. Maybe it would be, but once again the broader problem of capitalist overreach is ignored in favour of identity. Corporate exploitation is fine as long as it doesn't impact people who aren't able white men

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 12:57:40 PM

It is perfectly reasonable to not like it. But it's important to point out that generally you don't go from mass starvation to Starbucks on every corner in one step. There are coal mines and abusive videos in between.

by glimshe

2/6/2026 at 1:57:30 PM

There are some countries in East Asia that would be able to disagree with this

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 5:18:21 AM

Maybe we can hold hands in a circle and sing Kumbaya.

That would be as helpful as these vacuous takes.

by unmole

2/6/2026 at 4:37:27 AM

Watching this stuff all day can literally cause you to have lifelong PTSD. I want poor people to have enough money to provide for themselves, but this is exploitative - they should get paid a LOT more to do this kind of work, the same way someone who does something physically dangerous gets paid more for the risk.

by falkensmaize

2/6/2026 at 4:41:35 AM

Are you suggesting that the same people in India (the same woman) be employed but be paid, say, 2x her salary and the company would do it out of generosity (2x the market rate).

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 4:11:59 PM

I am a lower caste Indian one generation removed from being farmhands. I have seen my parents go without for decades until I became successful. I still think this is utter cruelty and another way the poor are taken advantage of. Mr Paternal westerner, I reject your false dichotomy.

by s_trumpet

2/6/2026 at 2:43:31 PM

> Some one has to moderate these videos

Do they? Maybe you can never get to zero, but I'd be surprised if there weren't any ways to materially reduce the frequency of such videos being uploaded.

Of course, many of these ways will probably affect growth metrics, and since these directly translate into revenue, I can imagine how the economic tradeoff that was made here looks like...

by lxgr

2/6/2026 at 6:09:55 PM

There are other trade offs, requiring a real world id to connect to the Internet and fragmenting it to connect only aligned countries will mostly take away problem of illegal porn, fraud and spam. But at some cost.

by blackoil

2/6/2026 at 2:06:50 PM

Im with you... to some extent. I come from parts of the world where there is real material poverty and so this is tangible food on the table and a better life in some sense...at least for her family if not for her.

The question though is why that material poverty exists in so many parts of the world that were once pretty advanced civilizations.... Colonialism def had a part to play there. So the irony isn't lost that western powers exploited and extracted from civilizations and cultures that were different from theirs..all in the name of progress of course..and now those parts of the world are dependent on the breadcrumbs thrown their way by different western powers.

by mayukh

2/7/2026 at 3:39:11 AM

You could use this argument to justify street prostitution.

by ted_bunny

2/6/2026 at 4:25:53 AM

I'm not sure what you mean by 'metaphysical' here, but I get the impression that you're dismissively trivializing real psychological problems by using that word.

An improvement in material conditions does not straightforwardly make up for these problems. What if they cause the viewer to commit suicide, or be so distraught they can no longer continue to work? People who do this work tend not to be able to do it for very long.

You also seem to be evaluating this by taking the current order of things for granted, as if it were not possible for this kind of thing to not be necessary in the first place. Quite a stunted imagination.

by pinnochio

2/6/2026 at 4:32:50 AM

_you_ don’t know what it means to be under material poverty.

Look up farmer suicides in India an you can understand how material poverty leads to even more suicides statistically.

These people don’t even have food to sustain. One of the biggest problems is that poor people in India have low IQ because they literally can’t afford food with vitamins.

Low IQ leads to irrational decisions, low productivity and they get equal vote so they vote in idiots that slow progress.

These jobs are the best deal for overall progress of India. Sure they have to struggle in the middle but at least they have good food on the plate. Some safety net to make long term decisions and vote for better leaders.

You wouldn’t get it. You would just show concern. But Indians have to deal with the problems.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 4:15:02 PM

I know what it means to be under material poverty in this hell of a country. Even so I think this is another poisoned chalice. We are where you export your garbage to, whether material or digital. I spit on your false charity.

by s_trumpet

2/6/2026 at 4:38:35 AM

_you_ don't seem to understand what I wrote, or are not attempting to genuinely respond to it. But you've demonstrated a certain thickheadedness, potentially willful, so I can't say I was expecting better.

by pinnochio

2/6/2026 at 4:42:10 AM

Sure, what alternative are you suggesting?

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 5:03:01 AM

They're suggesting that you listen to and address the points they made rather than simply rephrase your original viewpoint.

I'd suggest you try to understand that psychological problems are real and that you only get one brain. You may say "you don't understand poverty", but it equally sounds like you don't understand trauma and psychological issues. You only get one brain and life is about being happy. If you rise out of poverty, but you're less happy than you were, is that better? It sounds like it is for you as long as they stop voting for candidates you don't like. It's easy to not care about people's happiness if they don't vote for the candidates you like, right?

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 5:10:06 AM

Can you address the point I made where farmers suicides happen because of material poverty?

If you saw that my main point was that metaphysical concerns of “trauma” and “psychological issues” are a non issue for people who don’t have food on their plate.

> If you rise out of poverty, but you're less happy than you were, is that better?

Who are you to suggest they are less happy than otherwise? They took that decision voluntarily. I’m also suggesting that it’s the best decision.

You seem to think you have a better alternative for those people. Pray tell me, what is it that you are suggesting? What would you have rather done if you were the poor mother in middle of nowhere India and you had 6 children with complete lack of material stability. You would have rejected it?

If it were me or my friends or family- I would have definitely taken the job or adviced my friends to take it.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 6:25:54 PM

Apologies for inserting myself into this exchange, but I'd like to point out something that both your primary interlocuter seem to be overlooking.

> They took that decision voluntarily

Doesn't really describe the experience of the woman in the original article. She took a job in "data classification" which was initially boring but benign. Then her job assignments changed to reviewing NSFW and NSFL content that she herself recognized as psychologically harmful, without a pay increase, or affordance for her discomfort. In fact, the altered nature of her job was callously dismissed: "it's still data classification"!

I could probably agree with you that there's a market-clearing price where reviewing disturbing material becomes a worthwhile sacrifice for some to take, or even an actual opportunity for people psychologically suited to the work, but an informed, freely-taken choice is not the situation described. That's the exploitation that I see in this story.

by eszed

2/6/2026 at 5:31:40 AM

> Who are you to suggest they are less happy than otherwise?

Who are you to assume they always are? Once again, you're just dismissing the problems away.

> They took that decision voluntarily.

As if nobody in the history of the world took a deal that turned out to be bad for them. A voluntary choice does not inherently imply that the choice made them better off.

Regardless, you've completely ignored the last sentence of my original reply, but I'll try to spell it out for you. The neocolonialist objection does not boil down to, take these women's jobs away and make people in the corporation's home country do it. It is primarily a critique of the society that benefits from or depends on labor its own members consider unacceptable or beneath them. It is inherently exploitative by that society's own standards, and retaining such an economy is either unsustainable or incentivizes the perpetuation of the conditions which allow it to exploit. In other words, the US has a vested interest in making sure some people are always poor and desperate enough to do the jobs it doesn't want to do.

by pinnochio

2/6/2026 at 5:57:21 AM

You’ve ignored my point on material poverty leading to suicides again. This means you can’t appreciate that Indians suffer mostly from people lack of money than anything else.

> As if nobody in the history of the world took a deal that turned out to be bad for them. A voluntary choice does not inherently imply that the choice made them better off

I’m suggesting that it’s the best decision for them. They’ve clearly taken the decision so they also think the same. I asked you for alternatives, or what you could have rather done but you’ve not answered. Maybe consider that it’s the best option for them?

> In other words, the US has a vested interest in making sure some people are always poor and desperate enough to do the jobs it doesn't want to do.

This shows clearly you have no idea what you are talking about. It’s mostly because of US that India has great IT jobs. It’s also because of products and services made in the US that we use in India that India enjoys some prosperity. Think of all the pharmaceutical innovations. Think of the internet, iPhones and everything. The USA has a massive part in reducing poverty in India.

What you are doing is clear: moral grandstanding without suggesting any clear alternative. It’s always nice to show easy empathy.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 8:01:19 AM

Your perspective is consistently too black and white. No one in this comment chain has once said that this should not be allowed. At most it's been said that paying poor people to take trauma is concerning. Your response has consistently been "How dare you say poor people shouldn't have these jobs? These jobs are great!". You're trying to make it black and you white, when it's neither.

If your argument was "These jobs probably will scar some people for life, and that's troubling, but I do think the overall gain in welfare will likely outweigh that", then no one reasonable would be arguing with you. As it is, you haven't bothered to include this nuance, or even once admit or consider that some people could be made worse off overall by these jobs, even if perhaps most aren't. It basically just sounds like you want to see fewer "low IQ" poor people and you aren't really bothered how they feel afterwards. I'll say again, exceedingly many people have all the things you said are required for happiness, and still aren't happy. And that is usually due to trauma, the very thing we're talking about.

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 8:45:37 AM

> No one in this comment chain has once said that this should not be allowed. At most it's been said that paying poor people to take trauma is concerning

There's a commenter saying that they were forced to do it.

>Being able to force someone to do something is not justification for doing so. Further, it is ridiculous to try and label that as 'beneficial for everyone involved'. By the same token you can call outright slavery under threat of execution 'beneficial for everyone involved'. What tripe.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 1:46:51 PM

That's simply a logical conclusion from your own thought process. You keep saying that any job is okay if the person is desperate. i.e. it's okay to force people to do what you want if they've got no other choice

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 2:03:09 PM

yeah no sorry. there's clearly a person who thinks this should not be done. the way to interpret what they said is that they are forced to take this option.

> No one in this comment chain has once said that this should not be allowed

this is incorrect.

I did say that its okay for people to be forced to do the job if no other option exists (with some caveats).

If you disagree, tell me how and be specific about it. What would you rather do in this case?

Don't beat around the bush, try being specific.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 6:12:56 AM

>What would you have rather done if you were the poor mother in middle of nowhere India and you had 6 children with complete lack of material stability. You would have rejected it?

There's a major inconsistency here. You're consistently claiming that other people don't understand poverty, and yet you essentially made the point that you're not poor ("those people have lower IQ"). So either you started off poor and then worked your way up via some route that's obviously not this job, or you haven't experienced it either, or you are actually poor and aren't doing this work. Which is it?

>Can you address the point I made where farmers suicides happen because of material poverty?

You haven't provided any evidence. If you can prove the suicide rate is higher for these farmers, you may have a point, but even then, the suicide rate does not necessarily have any bearing on the overall rate of happiness. It's possible that a bigger majority are happier farming, but a small minority are pushed more inexorably towards suicide. Perhaps that isn't true either. We simply don't know without evidence.

That's my basic point. You're making strong claims, but you quite clearly simply do not know and are deciding based on instinct and perhaps a vague desire to have your favoured political candidates get more votes. You haven't provided any justification whatsoever. "I think it's right", "maybe they commit suicide" and "they don't vote for people I prefer" are not justifications, they're guesses. As much as you may want me to ("Who are you to suggest they are less happy than otherwise?"). I have made no claims whatsoever, simply pointed out the lack of nuance using hypotheticals.

Having more money is very good. Psychological damage is very bad. Your point is that psychological damage doesn't matter and having more food is all that matters. Okay, so should you send your child off to fight for a warlord if it means they have more food? Please try to grasp that's there's nuance.

>If you saw that my main point was that metaphysical concerns of “trauma” and “psychological issues” are a non issue for people who don’t have food on their plate.

I've put this at the end because its beside the main point, but this sentence is just a barrel of conceptual misunderstandings. Trauma is a type of psychological issue, so "trauma and psychological issues" makes no sense without a prepended "other". Neither trauma nor psychological issues are metaphysical concerns. Metaphysical concerns are issues of first principles and deeper understandings of concepts. It's a branch of philosophy. If you don't believe me, Google it, or ask ChatGPT.

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 6:39:39 AM

>There's a major inconsistency here. You're consistently claiming that other people don't understand poverty, and yet you essentially made the point that you're not poor ("those people have lower IQ"). So either you started off poor and then worked your way up via some route that's obviously not this job, or you haven't experienced it either, or you are actually poor and aren't doing this work. Which is it?

Have you considered that I have more knowledge of poverty, not because I have experienced it, but because I have spent time understanding it?

> You haven't provided any evidence. If you can prove the suicide rate is higher for these farmers, you may have a point, but even then, the suicide rate does not necessarily have any bearing on the overall rate of happiness. It's possible that a bigger majority are happier farming, but a small minority are pushed more inexorably towards suicide. Perhaps that isn't true either. We simply don't know without evidence.

You didn't understand the point I was trying to make.

Lets make it clear here: people are either unhappy because of material poverty like lack of money/food or because of higher level needs like love, safety and in this case - not watching abusive videos (so ridiculous that I even have to compare this).

Do you genuinely want to challenge me in claiming that people are more unhappy by watching abusive videos than because of material poverty? Really?

>Having more money is very good. Psychological damage is very bad. Your point is that psychological damage doesn't matter and having more food is all that matters. Okay, so should you send your child off to fight for a warlord if it means they have more food? Please try to grasp that's there's nuance.

Yes I would? The actual equivalent here is that the child does not have other means of earning and would go hungry. And that fighting for the warlord is overall good for the society. In that case its obvious. Are you this naive to not understand that this is _exactly_ why you have an army in your country? Why do you think people become soldiers? You are so naive and stick to moral grandstanding that you have not even grasped why people work.

I have asked you the third (I think) time now. What would you rather do if you were in the woman's situation? You have conveniently ignored it.

Pray tell me, what is the best choice for the woman to make? I have made it clear that I would have done the same thing. I actually think there's a reason why you ignored this question. By answering it, you would clearly admit that

1. this is the best choice she can take

2. this job has to be done by someone anyway so its net benefit to society

3. this means the overall story is a net positive for everyone and your moral grandstanding has no place here

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 7:59:04 AM

>Have you considered that I have more knowledge of poverty, not because I have experienced it, but because I have spent time understanding it?

If this is true, you haven't shown any evidence of it.

>Lets make it clear here: people are either unhappy because of material poverty like lack of money/food or because of higher level needs like love, safety and in this case - not watching abusive videos (so ridiculous that I even have to compare this).

Again you're making a value judgment and not providing any evidence besides saying it's true. Happiness is far more complex than this, and exceedingly many people who do have all the things you just stated are still unhappy, and very very often that's due to trauma.

>Do you genuinely want to challenge me in claiming that people are more unhappy by watching abusive videos than because of material poverty? Really?

My friend, you are consistently failing to understand nuance. This isn't a contest, no one is "challenging" you. Maybe what you said here is true, maybe it isn't, let's discuss the "why"s and the justifications and the evidence, but all you seem to be able to do is say "this is true and it's true because I say it's true, and also maybe suicides but with no evidence".

>Yes I would? ... 3. this means the overall story is a net positive for everyone and your moral grandstanding has no place here

This entire section boils down to an argument that could equally made for slavery. Well if they have a roof over their head and food, why not have slavery? At least they're not starving, right?

The funny thing is that there's absolutely nothing unjustifiable about your position. I actually genuinely don't disagree that people should be able to have these jobs. I'm bringing all this up because your justifications and motivations are completely immoral and illogical. Of course I would take the choice to do this job, but equally I would take the choice of slavery if it stopped me from starving. That doesn't make it right or a good thing for society.

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 8:49:29 AM

>This entire section boils down to an argument that could equally made for slavery. Well if they have a roof over their head and food, why not have slavery? At least they're not starving, right?

What's the alternative? This is the 6th time I'm asking this. Without answering this question, you are playing rhetorical games.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 10:30:49 PM

Read a history book to learn how all this bad stuff was abolished in the West. Ofcourse that requires a basic respect for poor people to develop in India...

by PearlRiver

2/6/2026 at 1:52:21 PM

What is a rhetorical game if "ignoring the entire comment and then complaining you didn't answer one question that's entirely irrelevant to the central point" isn't? Read the comment again and try to figure out why it's irrelevant. I'll give you a hint: read the last paragraph. Once you've done that I may continue speaking to you.

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 3:29:41 PM

you have not answered - "its not a good thing for society". so what is? having enough money? what's the point in moral grandstanding to say something so obvious? of course it would be good if everyone has a lot of money.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 4:04:12 PM

Read the comment and then reply.

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 5:40:42 AM

If I was in that position, and you gave me the choice to ritualistically mutilate myself for your amusement so my children could escape, I'd probably take it.

Your entire chain of argument is vacuous; devoid of any sense of empathy for your fellow humanity.

by hexaga

2/6/2026 at 5:59:06 AM

I show empathy which is why I’m happy that they have this job and can put food on their plate. You show fake empathy and fake concern by prioritising metaphysical needs.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 6:21:02 AM

Again, vacuous. You deride as 'metaphysical' what is psychological. But the health and well-being of children too is a 'metaphysical' concern to the worker by this metric, and yet you call it up to support yourself? Your argument is empty, hypocritical: there can be no substance to calling the one metaphysical and the other physical, thereby dismissing all suffering.

If you're going to play the game you're playing, play it everywhere: their children don't matter, their suffering doesn't matter, they don't matter.

The core of your argument is merely that if it is possible to force someone to do something, it is right and proper. What a vile philosophy, to make what is detestable into that which is desirable.

At least have the grace to be ashamed and turn away, if you cannot stomach the taste but to replace it with deception.

by hexaga

2/6/2026 at 6:27:46 AM

My point is that material needs are more important to people under poverty than metaphysical like feeling bad about watching abusive videos.

You agree that this job is necessary to be done. You agree that this is the best option they have and they are better off with it. You would also do the same thing if you were in their position. You agree that this job exiting is overall beneficial for everyone involved.

Then what’s with the moral grandstanding? Yes it’s not ideal that someone has to do the job.

What point do you want to make other than virtue signalling?

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 7:57:59 AM

Being able to force someone to do something is not justification for doing so. Further, it is ridiculous to try and label that as 'beneficial for everyone involved'. By the same token you can call outright slavery under threat of execution 'beneficial for everyone involved'. What tripe.

Repeatedly stating that it's 'better for them' because they have no choice is not the slam dunk you seem to think it is. The entire class of argument does not hold water; this line of reasoning will not convince me. It does not even slightly support your position.

I'd thank you to not put words in my mouth. You're wrong about them.

What point do I make other than virtue signaling? Mayhap read what you replied to, and you'll find it. But if you struggle still: your load-bearing use of 'metaphysical' is basically nonsense. I explained why already, why should I endlessly repeat myself?

by hexaga

2/6/2026 at 8:43:15 AM

> Being able to force someone to do something is not justification for doing so. Further, it is ridiculous to try and label that as 'beneficial for everyone involved'

Who's forced here?

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 6:16:05 AM

He likely betrayed his real motivations a few comments back. He's annoyed about candidates getting elected by "low IQ" voters, and he wants them to get smarter by eating more so they can vote for the right people.

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 6:28:36 AM

can you answer this specific question: what would you have done differently if you were in their position? You’ve avoided answering this.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 9:02:35 AM

Yeah, let's save these poor women by taking their jobs away...

by Markoff

2/6/2026 at 4:50:21 PM

[dead]

by evsimonisretar

2/6/2026 at 4:33:57 PM

how privileged of you! thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you while you centralize my brain power and start charging me a tax on thinking. GTH

by a456463

2/6/2026 at 4:04:56 AM

I remember watching this kind of content for free on Liveleak back in the day.

Maybe they should get edgy teenagers to do the content classification rather than third-world rural women with minimal media exposure.

by AussieWog93

2/6/2026 at 9:01:45 AM

I was not big fan of Liveleak, but I really enjoyed WatchPeopleDie community, one could learn a lot in the comments about how to be safer in the enviroment (I'm aware they moved to website, but it's not same anymore, too much friction to visit it)

after being the regular visitor of WPD I stand at the junction waiting for my turn shielded by the traffic lights pole and always look in the eye of the driver when crossing the road, especially if it's tall truck

some ppl don't realize how many lives actually WPD saved, but hey now we have victory nobody is exposed to this disturbing content and making silly jokes about death, right?

by Markoff

2/6/2026 at 2:29:11 PM

I actually agree with this, I was a weekly WPD user and it was downright educational.

by cm2012

2/6/2026 at 4:16:46 AM

This is obviously a flippant comment that shouldn't be taken seriously. But the loss of LiveLeak seems like the loss of the journalism that the Internet was supposed to bring. There were a lot of odd things posted on there with some unneeded commentary but it was a place that would post unfiltered content that other places were scared to post. A lot of it was disgusting that I wouldn't watch, but it's weird to think that the Internet is censored now in a way where it's hard to even find it.

You can find areas of propaganda where site rule breaking will be allowed if it serves the interest of the owner, but you really have to seek it out. It's even weirder that the latest generation is self censoring common words so they can show up on sites like TikTok. Billionaires buying newspapers to censor seems less strange but sadly something I also didn't expect.

by throwawaygmbno

2/6/2026 at 4:23:05 AM

Blame Visa and Mastercard and the puritanical-when-it's-convenient media

by permo-w

2/6/2026 at 4:46:19 AM

When I was in my 20s I worked for a well-known global telco. In our office, we had a group of people whose literal job was watching streaming porn from around the world all day. They had walls of screens running simultaneously.

Those streams were customers. Our people’s job was to monitor the streams for video and audio quality issues. When I would tell my friends that I worked with guys who’s literal job was watching porn on a sofa all day, they thought it must be the best job in the world.

But when I talked to the guys that actually had the job, they said it was a terribly boring chore. Even worse, they said you quickly become so desensitized that it bled over into their non-work life in a negative way. Almost everyone that had that job eventually grew to hate it.

These kinds of jobs have always existed. To some extent someone needs to do it. While we may be outsourcing it now, there is a long history of paying people in the US to do it.

by jandrewrogers

2/6/2026 at 6:05:03 PM

I can only imagine that watching abuse/porn all day long may cause a person to change- possibly even lead to suicide.

by TitaRusell

2/6/2026 at 4:34:51 AM

> Sometimes, when I’m with my partner, I feel like a stranger in my own body. I want closeness, but my mind keeps pulling away.

Dissociation. A classic sign of trauma and PTSD.

by compounding_it

2/6/2026 at 4:03:12 AM

It's a well compensated job vs local opportunities but feels like it should be an extravagantly compensated job vs local opportunities. Someone has to do it, but also somewhere along the continuum of doing factory garment work for $100 and deep sea welding for $100k, it feels like this should be closer to latter.

Seems like kind of job that needs physical filtering. Onboard bunch of candidates, measure their vitals, find low responders to abusive stimulus, hire them. I'm sure there's some poorly replicated psych study done on 1st years to draw from.

by maxglute

2/6/2026 at 4:12:30 AM

I see a contradiction. If they are not responsive, their psyche is safe and there are no reasons for them to be compensated much more than minimum wage workers.

by nvch

2/6/2026 at 4:44:18 AM

"Safer" - I think essentially filtering for 1-2% of population high on sociopathy / anti social spectrum. Doesn't mean they're immune, just better equipped for job cognitively. I surmise compensation goes up when weeding out 98% of population.

by maxglute

2/6/2026 at 5:00:08 AM

All right, the twist. They may hire Tantric Buddhists or Shaivites. Some of them even pay to meditate on stuff like that, and will be happy to do the practice and get paid for it.

Oh, wait, India?

by nvch

2/6/2026 at 5:26:16 AM

I'll get started on the business plan boss!

by maxglute

2/6/2026 at 3:57:44 AM

This is an absolutely horrific thing to make a person do. I see comments that say "well someone needs to do it." Then why not volunteer?

by unstyledcontent

2/6/2026 at 4:04:46 AM

They are volunteering! They need the money.

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 9:20:03 AM

I imagine myself as the one paying someone to do horrible things and uttering this line, and it makes me shudder.

by nicbou

2/6/2026 at 4:17:08 AM

Yes, also this region was ravaged my violent communists (Maoists) not so long ago. So they have very few opportunities.

by leosanchez

2/6/2026 at 4:00:28 AM

Who is making them work this job?

by 827a

2/6/2026 at 4:05:11 AM

Mr Poverty and Ms Hunger

This is not new. The British boast of banning slavery but they will never tell you about their invention of bonded labour. They imported bonded labour to South Africa, Guyana and other parts of their empire.

Now companies can use the Internet to keep the labour remote. Doesn't even require a degree.

by SanjayMehta

2/6/2026 at 4:07:32 AM

Do you not think a person who is literally in poverty and who is actually hungry needs the job?

by simianwords

2/6/2026 at 4:14:16 AM

Of course. And since they truly need it, we may as well make it as cheap and abusive as possible, right?

by sonofhans

2/6/2026 at 4:35:01 AM

They should be paid a premium above market rate? Why? Generosity?

by simianwords

2/7/2026 at 1:10:48 AM

Honestly, I love this comment, and I’m going to save it.

You’re so convinced that money is more important than human dignity you use the word “generosity” as invective. It can be hard to remember that this point of view exists, so thank you for the reminder.

by sonofhans

2/6/2026 at 6:37:30 PM

"The market says this women is low value. Why should I disagree?"

A take for the ages.

by mrguyorama

2/6/2026 at 6:25:39 AM

Where did I say that? I'm explaining to the parent poster.

by SanjayMehta

2/6/2026 at 4:14:59 AM

She can quit anytime she wants, let's not compare this to indentured servitude, Sanjay.

This is a consequence of communism and big government of India.

by leosanchez

2/6/2026 at 2:29:01 PM

I don’t think she can quit anytime soon unless she wants to be homeless. If she has option she wouldn't be doing such kind of job.

by cute_boi

2/6/2026 at 5:11:42 PM

Generally, Indians live with their parents until their marriage. So I am guessing she won't be homeless.

by leosanchez

2/6/2026 at 6:26:27 AM

Subtle argumentation is not one of your strengths, Leo.

by SanjayMehta

2/6/2026 at 11:05:01 AM

Curiously, it's the Indians who have taken it upon themselves to master the practice of bonded labour and draw benefit from its ongoing existence.

by bbg2401

2/6/2026 at 7:02:49 PM

I get why a firefighter may be asked to take risks to save lives. We should not ask these women to take these risks so that billionaires can become trillionaires.

by klaff

2/6/2026 at 5:46:31 PM

None of the tech companies really want to moderate. Not because free peaches but because it costs a metric ton of money.

by TitaRusell

2/6/2026 at 2:03:45 PM

Is there a solution to this?

Let's say these jobs are bad. What do we do then? Just not have people do this job? Not allow uploads?

by duxup

2/6/2026 at 2:50:05 PM

I had the same thought. I think the job is unavoidable BUT it needs much better screening. There are already countless of mindless individual who love watching that content, why not hire them? Finally a job sex offenders are good at.

It could also be a Clockwork Orange therapy for them.

by halapro

2/6/2026 at 7:04:59 PM

If the choice is let's have [facebook|linkedin|bluesky] and someone has to suffer like this, or we don't have those things, than let's not have them.

by klaff

2/6/2026 at 7:20:17 PM

The onus should be on the job provider to care for their employees too. They have a responsibility to ensure their employees are not physically harmed while they work. And to help or compensate their workers for any work injury. Right? Why not use the same criteria for psychological harm too? They should be provided psychological counselling. And note that this is not a new industry.

by thisislife2

2/6/2026 at 2:04:43 PM

RealID + Ban + Legal Enforcement (depending on the content)

It will cut this work down by 90%, but I doubt many people here will go for it.

by RegnisGnaw

2/6/2026 at 2:07:12 PM

I think that would require someone looking at the content.

by duxup

2/6/2026 at 5:42:10 PM

It does but way less. As I said "It will cut this work down by 90%, but I doubt many people here will go for it."

by RegnisGnaw

2/6/2026 at 2:48:27 PM

You're thinking US. What happens when most of the world doesn't even have an ID? Does Facebook suddenly drop 80% of users? Do US Facebook users only see US content?

The internet is not only "the west." What you're thinking is what's already happening in the Chinese internet, and even they cannot really limit the amount of disgusting content released by Chinese websites.

As long as non-verified users have access to the same internet as you, that content will continue to exist.

by halapro

2/6/2026 at 5:47:00 PM

I'm thinking most countries. Most countries have some kind of ID. Most countries in Europe does. If not its easy to setup one if there is will.

I've never said is an 100% solution, nothing is an 100% solution. This is a 90% solution, which is already a huge improvement. Why would non-verified users have same access as you? Sure they can read, but no creation.

I'm from China and use the Chinese Internet regularity. The amount of disgusting content is way less then the global internet and they have less people doing filtering for abusive content.

by RegnisGnaw

2/6/2026 at 6:11:10 PM

No one should have to do this job. And if you can't make your social network function or AI thing function without it, then maybe, just maybe, we shouldn't have that social network or AI thing.

by klaff

2/6/2026 at 3:59:35 AM

How do humans with very little exposure to grotesque violence or extreme content universally label such content so well? This is not graduate level data that needs labeling.

What is missing in an AI model for it to intuitively understand what content is extreme from very few labeled sample in training?

by paulkon

2/6/2026 at 5:49:03 AM

A finely tuned set of heuristic triggers for fear, horror, disgust, etc. You might as well ask why pain is so painful.

by hexaga

2/7/2026 at 5:09:54 AM

For a detailed understanding of the psychological harm and detrimental long-lasting effects of explicit image annotation see the following documentary (not specific to India). Undercover reporter does annotation of explicit images for AI but is so traumatized by what he sees that he quits in two weeks;

The "Modern Day Slaves" Of The AI Tech World. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPSZFUiElls

by rramadass

2/6/2026 at 2:25:20 AM

> Murmu, 26, is a content moderator for a global technology company, logging on from her village in India’s Jharkhand state

> With just four months left on her contract, which pays about £260 a month

Earning US$350/mo working remotely in a village in one of the poorest states in India is an extremely competitive given that the alternative would be spending 12 hours sewing fast fashion for Zara earning US$130-150/mo [0], doing bit piece ag labor for around US$100/mo and participating in MGNREGA for US$50/mo, become a housewife, or become a Naxalite/Maoist insurgent to earn a couple thousand dollars when surrendering [1].

Content moderation means interacting with extremely depressing and horrid content, but someone needs to do it, and once models get good enough we would start seeing articles about how "all the good 100% remote first jobs with no barrier to entry" are being automated to oblivion.

Yes it sucks, but the alternative is becoming a migrant worker or working in light manufacturing where QoL is worse. Heck, we used to see similar articles about Chinese workers for Apple barely 14 years ago in then equally poor Sichuan [2], but you don't see those kinds of articles anymore.

Development takes time and the fact that US$350/mo remote data annotation and content moderation jobs are now penetrating into villages in what used to be the Naxalite/Maoist/Red Corridor where bombings and gun battles were a part of normal life just 10 years ago [3] is a massive step up developmentally - it means that there is robust enough internet, literacy, banking, and public services penetration for the seeds for a services economy to form.

Edit: Thanks for the downvotes westerners - my family is from these kinds of villages in India and Vietnam. The alternatives are extremely bleak - especially for a tribal woman like Ms Murmu at the bottom of the social and patriarchal hierarchy.

[0] - https://theprint.in/ground-reports/industries-finally-return...

[1] - https://www.thehansindia.com/news/national/18-yr-old-maoist-...

[2] - https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-...

[3] - https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2016/Nov/23/six-maoi...

by alephnerd

2/6/2026 at 5:11:29 AM

>>given that the alternative would be spending 12 hours sewing fast ...

That is the best case scenario. Mostly women roll beedis(a kind of needle sized cigar) on which you get like 1 paise per 10 rolls or something like that. Or worse do assorted labor chores which can really sap one's soul real fast.

Even with all that women actually have it a lot better than men. Men literally die and are reborn every day in most parts of India.

Just drive 30 kms North of Bangalore, and you will see abject poverty scenes. People scavenging bovine dung for fuel, children with flies, no clothing. The ever present scene is always that of an elderly person with pencil thin legs wearing shorts he likely is wearing since a decade with nothing but boiled rice and salt water+turmeric to eat daily. 8 - 10 hr power cuts are the norm, that is if you can afford electricity at all. Most health care is either entirely absent, or you have to travel to the nearest metro and hope you don't die out of hunger getting treatment there. I could go on but that is life here.

£260 a month is actually great for some place like this.

by kamaal

2/6/2026 at 9:45:35 PM

I agree with you completely, but I'm confused by this phrase?

>Men literally die and are reborn every day in most parts of India.

by kbelder

2/6/2026 at 4:09:24 AM

I see few people coming from Jharkhand and working as waitresses in my state.

Also, your first link mentions Bihar not Jharkhand.

by leosanchez

2/6/2026 at 4:11:13 AM

> I see few people coming from Jharkhand and working as waitresses in my state

Ststistically, a young Santali woman from rural Jharkhand would most likely end up working in West Bengal, Maharashtra, or Karnataka [0] according to Jharkhand's Migration Survey.

> Also, your first link mentions Bihar not Jharkhand

Because HDI and developmental indicators remain roughly comparable in both states. Salaries in Bihar are comparable to salaries for similar roles in Jharkhand, Eastern UP, or Northern portions of West Bengal.

[0] - https://iimad.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/salx20170525s-i...

by alephnerd

2/6/2026 at 8:02:45 PM

Jharkhand was formerly part of Bihar >25 years ago, and they were administered jointly with Orissa before independence. Then, my family worked in the police service and were transferred between Patna and Hazaribagh without any problem.

by selimthegrim

2/6/2026 at 3:48:28 AM

Yeah what’s the alternative to moderation…no moderation?

by paulddraper

2/6/2026 at 2:57:21 AM

There is an argument.

but maybe you have an idea of how manual labor feels (people always do some of it) but no idea how this type of horror feels and what it does.

by throwaway290

2/6/2026 at 2:59:31 AM

The alternatives in these kinds of villages in rural Jharkhand's tribal and red corridor are literally

1.) bit-piece agriculture work for the local landlord who will never pay salaries on time because he has the power

2.) migrate to the nearest big city (in this case Ranchi, Dhanbad, or Patna) and work at a factory for 12 hours a week with the exact same risks

3.) get married off

4.) join a Maoist outfit in order to surrender and get government rehabilitation benefits.

And all of this is assuming the men (and it's always men) who they are reporting to are not lecherous abusers which is a very real risk in these kinds of jobs for women in Ms Murmu's status.

Like out of all the bad options, this is the least bad one - especially in an area that was a warzone barely a decade ago.

by alephnerd

2/6/2026 at 3:29:38 AM

> this is the least bad one

not that I wish this on anyone but you would change your mind very quickly if you had to do this job for just one hour. it can fuck you up for life

by bdangubic

2/6/2026 at 3:56:07 AM

I don't think anyone is disputing that this job is terrible, it clearly is. The counter argument is that many other jobs are also terrible, and it's not clear whether you can really stack rank them and this one is at the bottom of the pole.

by golem14

2/6/2026 at 5:35:13 AM

The counter counter argument is that we all talking here know what manual job or not getting paid feels like. But we don't know what it does to you if you have a job where you must watch humans hurt/torture/rape other humans day in day out.

we know what work feels like. Maybe it's better maybe it's worse. But we don't know personally and have no intuition about THIS kind of stuff.

by throwaway290

2/6/2026 at 6:08:42 AM

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here. Am I just too old? What do you mean, people on this forum have no intuition about what watching gore videos online is like? About watching hours of ordinary porn (as the article also mentioned)?

That's more likely to be within the experience of a HackerNews user than serious manual labor.

by greygoo222

2/6/2026 at 6:56:14 AM

I mean literally what I wrote.

> people on this forum have no intuition about what watching gore videos online is like

as a job day in day out no they don't

(also abuse is not gore which can be consensual)

(also HN is mostly men aka people who statistically are performers of abuse not receivers of abuse so adjust accordingly)

by throwaway290

2/6/2026 at 3:31:48 AM

So can working in the unorganized sector in the heart of the Red Corridor. Like this is literally one of the least developed parts of one of the least developed states in India.

A tribal woman like Murmu who is clearly living in the Red Corridor districts (based on surname and geographic location) doesn't have any better choice.

Yes content moderation introduces you to horrid content, but the alternatives give the very real risk of physical and sexual violence.

by alephnerd

2/6/2026 at 5:39:59 AM

This is utterly ridiculous. The majority of teens I knew watched a few hours of LiveLeak at some point and turned out fine.

by greygoo222

2/6/2026 at 1:06:39 PM

a few hours! Watching it for 40+ hours a week for months on end is going to fuck you up more than a casual perusal of a shock website.

by fragmede

2/6/2026 at 8:54:04 AM

Yeah and you for sure know what went through all of their heads.

If a kid enjoys it it's a very big red flag. If a kid is horrified by it (as I was) even if pretending to be cool in front of peers, then there you have your answer as to what it must feel to do it every day 9 to 7.

by throwaway290

2/6/2026 at 4:30:43 AM

Eww. Like 19th c. children in dangerous factories, abusing poor people's mental health sifting through the Global North's cavalcade of depravity. There must exist more productive and honest uses of people's time, and some jobs shouldn't be done for any amount of money. Some jobs done risky ways shouldn't be done by human beings at all in dangerous manners (coal mining without safety equipment, loom maintenance while running, carrying sulfur chunks out of active volcanoes) because they lower us all. "But they're making money" is not a good enough excuse because that's a false choice as there infinitely other activities, and any number of safer activities or similar tasks done with meaningful precautions are needed, desirable, and could be done instead.

by burnt-resistor

2/6/2026 at 2:01:59 AM

[dead]

by huflungdung

2/5/2026 at 11:47:45 PM

[flagged]

by ares623

2/6/2026 at 3:55:11 AM

When VCs and investors keep saying 'There will be new jobs', they never tell you exactly what they are - on purpose.

Now we know that it is actually being a data labeller, AI tutor and content moderator, but in very low wage countries such as in India.

This is the post-AGI reality. 'Abundance', but not for you.

by rvz

2/6/2026 at 3:59:33 AM

That's false. We expect that jobs are growing at both ends of the income distribution with AI [0][1] - yes there are a ton of data annotators and content moderators now, but literally the overwhelming majority of us also expect to see an expansion in standard SWE and SWE adjacent roles with AI/ML vibe coding becoming the norm.

The reason you are facing job losses right now is because Joe in Cary who learnt to code at a bootcamp can't justify being paid $180k a year when I can hire Jan for $90k in Karlin [2] or Jamila for $60k in Koramangla [3] while maintaining equivalent performance and output. Having a president pass an executive order to distract from the Gold Card announcement [4] also played a role [5] just like we warned would happen.

[0] - https://www.ft.com/content/267037e8-a71f-4025-acca-f441fe712...

[1] - https://www.ft.com/content/d6fdc04f-85cf-4358-a686-298c3de0e...

[2] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/prague-...

[3] - https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/greater...

[4] - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-signs-proclamati...

[5] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-03/alphabet-...

by alephnerd