Moderating content for Facebook Inc. by all accounts is an extremely stressful job, according to a number of people interviewed by The Verge.

In a damning investigative report released Wednesday, it was revealed that some of the 800 moderators working at a company called Cognizant in Tampa, Florida, face relentless stress as they try to enforce Facebook’s ever-changing community standards.

According to that report, workers are first asked to sign a 14-page nondisclosure agreement. Once they are on the job, they are expected to meet a 98% accuracy target, which it seems many can’t meet.

A 42-year-old man even died on the job from a heart attack, and although it’s not clear if his death was work stress-related, a former co-worker of the man said he was continually worried he would lose his job. “The stress they put on him, it’s unworldly,” he said.

Contractors who moderate the world’s largest social media platform do seem to have a hard time of it. According to The Verge, they might start at just $28,800 a year and work in a stressful climate in which they receive only 15-minute breaks and 30-minute breaks for lunch.

But the job itself is what could be called a grimy experience, the reason being the contractors are continually exposed to the rot that some people send through the platform, including images of extreme violence and in some cases child pornography. Not surprisingly, some moderators have developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

A spokesperson for Cognizant said before anyone starts the job they are made aware of what it will entail, warts and all, although for some of those interviewed, the work was too much. The job itself, one person said, might be advertised as “social media analyst,” but in reality it was more like sifting through human depravity. One former employer gave the example of looking at a “video of a man slaughtering puppies with a baseball bat.”

Former employees also explained how fights would break out and thefts would occur, and some employees fell into a pit of depression and anxiety. Another former employee described how filthy the place was, calling her job “a sweatshop in America.”

That article is not the first in which Facebook content moderators have revealed appalling conditions. In 2017, The Wall Street Journal described how moderators would have to watch murders, extreme violence, even suicides, with the Journal saying such moderating was “the worst job in technology.”

This year two former moderators sued Facebook, claiming they had suffered PTSD and significant mental trauma after a stint in the moderating seat. According to the lawsuit, Facebook had not provided a safe workplace for employees.

“This case has uncovered a nightmare world that most of us did not know about,” said a lawyer for the company representing the pair.

Image: Matt Walsh/Flickr