#outsourcing NEWS

[reasonsforhope]

"More than 150 workers whose labor underpins the AI systems of Facebook, TikTok and ChatGPT gathered in Nairobi on Monday [May 1st, 2023] and pledged to establish the first African Content Moderators Union, in a move that could have significant consequences for the businesses of some of the world’s biggest tech companies.

The current and former workers, all employed by third party outsourcing companies, have provided content moderation services for AI tools used by Meta, Bytedance, and OpenAI—the respective owners of Facebook, TikTok and the breakout AI chatbot ChatGPT. Despite the mental toll of the work, which has left many content moderators suffering from PTSD, their jobs are some of the lowest-paid in the global tech industry, with some workers earning as little as $1.50 per hour.

As news of the successful vote to register the union was read out, the packed room of workers at the Mövenpick Hotel in Nairobi burst into cheers and applause, a video from the event seen by TIME shows. Confetti fell onto the stage, and jubilant music began to play as the crowd continued to cheer.

The establishment of the Content Moderators Union is the culmination of a process that began in 2019, when Daniel Motaung, a Facebook content moderator, was fired from his role at the outsourcing company Sama after he attempted to convene a workers’ union called the Alliance. Motaung, whose story was first revealed by TIME, is now suing both Facebook and Sama in a Nairobi court. Motaung traveled from his home in South Africa to attend the Labor Day meeting of more than 150 content moderators in Nairobi, and addressed the group.

“I never thought, when I started the Alliance in 2019, we would be here today—with moderators from every major social media giant forming the first African moderators union,” Motaung said in a statement. “There have never been more of us. Our cause is right, our way is just, and we shall prevail. I couldn’t be more proud of today’s decision to register the Content Moderators Union.”

TIME’s reporting on Motaung “kicked off a wave of legal action and organizing that has culminated in two judgments against Meta and planted the seeds for today’s mass worker summit,” said Foxglove, a non-profit legal NGO that is supporting the cases, in a press release.

Those two judgments against Meta include one from April in which a Kenyan judge ruled Meta could be sued in a Kenyan court—following an argument from the company that, since it did not formally trade in Kenya, it should not be subject to claims under the country’s legal system. Meta is also being sued, separately, in a $2 billion case alleging it has failed to act swiftly enough to remove posts that, the case says, incited deadly violence in Ethiopia...

Workers who helped OpenAI detoxify the breakout AI chatbot ChatGPT were present at the event in Nairobi, and said they would also join the union. TIME was the first to reveal the conditions faced by these workers, many of whom were paid less than $2 per hour to view traumatizing content including descriptions and depictions of child sexual abuse. ...Said Richard Mathenge, a former ChatGPT content moderator... “Our work is just as important and it is also dangerous. We took an historic step today. The way is long but we are determined to fight on so that people are not abused the way we were.”

-via TIME, 5/1/23

[Note: In addition to Big Tech outsourcing and exploiting workers for social media and AI moderation, many companies also exploit and vastly underpay mostly overseas workers to straight up pretend to be AI. I'm really glad issues around this are starting to get attention AND UNIONS because exploited overseas labor is so often the backbone of AI--or even the "AI" itself.]

#labor unions #africa #kenya #south africa #open ai #chatgpt #facebook #meta #tiktok #workers rights #labor rights #exploitation #outsourcing #big tech #anti ai #nairobi #unionisation #unionize #good news #hope

[aheathen-conceivably]

Guess who’s already bored with gameplay 🙋🏻‍♀️

Babes I swear I had plans for this little family but my brain decided “nahhh without a story this is no fun anymore.” Perhaps one day I’ll return to the beach vacation (maybe when For Rent is on sale 👀) but for now I’m going to spam y’all with the last few gameplay shots over the weekend so we can return to what we’re ~really~ here for.

On that topic, do ya’ll prefer steady content, or getting a story post when it’s done? I won’t be able to get back to a regular schedule until after the holidays, so I can queue up everything I manage to finish until after that, or I can just release a post or two whenever it’s completed. Of course I usually like to have a steady stream of story posts, so that’s the goal for after the New Year, but for now, let me know your feelings!

#please thank antiquatedplumbobs for my new love of this GIF #also in case y’all haven’t figured it out I am a creature of planning and schedules #so the holidays positively ruin me #and I love love doing this but it hurts my brain to do it without a schedule #but January seems so far away and I miss my pixels 😢 #thus I am torn and outsource to you lovely people #thank you babes 💕 #gif warning

[yamanoskk]

Girls and spirits are seeking for ‘something’.

Either the ownerless place to live, the cause of this brand new incident, or simply want to unleash their provoked will.

---

A fanart based on the demo of Touhou 19!

Gonna looking forward the full version too!!

#fanart #touhou #touhou project #touhou 19 #unfinished dream of all living ghost #a bit of talk in tag session! #gameplay wise i don't really have a strong opinion here #kinda better to wait for full version #still think it's pretty cool to see other characters form older game become playable tho! #on the other side - i'm always a title screen theme enjoyer but mannnnn I never expect to hear it want this hard. Really love it!!! #the other new songs are pretty nice too! #ask for the remixed one - personally prefer the older ones from their own respective game - still nice to listen tho. #new artworks are really cool! it seem like Zun's artwork keep improving and i'm really glad of him! #the outsourced pixeled sprites are reaally cute too!! #yamanoart

[caterpillarinacave]

Roman and Neo Rapunzel AU but Roman’s Rapunzel and Neo is Flynn Rider

#Started out as a joke now it’s all I’ve been thinking about for the past twenty minutes #since I started watching rapunzel anyway #Lil miss grabbed Roman when he was like 13 and Roman doesn’t remember anything before that #It would be hilarious. #Romans actually a million times more street wise than neo from a) the thirteen years he spent on the streets that he doesn’t remember #And b) lil miss outsourcing all difficult problems to him because he’s smarter than everyone #Cut to the fuzzy duckling scene which Neo is SURE will get him to back off. Cut to ten minutes later when Roman is best friends with everyo #I a) love rapunzel and b) love Roman and Neo #Does it work great with Neo as Rapunzel? Yes. It does. Does it basically fit perfectly? Yeah. Is Roman basically a perfect Eugene? Yeah. #It’s not broken but I’m still gonna fix it #I can have both I do have both and I will have both. #New thought it’s Roman eyes that glow. The eye he covers has been gouged out. Cue: #“When I was a baby people tried to steal my hair but once it’s cut it loses its power” #But much more morbid. On account of Lil Miss cutting his eye out. #Oh wait more thoughts. AU to the AU has been formed. #No I shan’t explain. I’d be girlbossing to close the sun. #Rwby #roman torchwick #neo #Au is slightly damaged by the fact that a) no one has ever wanted Roman and b) no one has ever wanted Neo #‘specially on the bio parent front. Romans mom would have paid someone to kidnap him.

[portalmonsterrr]

I spent days on a fucking yeehan shitpost that wasnt even funny in the first place *head in hands* enjoy

#overwatch #overwatch hanzo #cole cassidy #yeehan #hanzo x cassidy #also i had to outsource new hanzo design because i still dont have the beta i am so sad #hanzo is the biggest simp known to men

[horseslur]

hey does the winter festival have a thing similar to the haunted trail ride. and in which location would that take place

#efficient effort allocation means outsourcing future event knowledge to possibly replicate a glitch at a later date instead of trying #to invent a new one now #calamity be upon ye #sso

[homestuck--edits]

WOAGH

-mod davesprite

#mod davesprite #thanks bec for pointing this out #btw did you notice bec? no you were too busy watching the jugglers in the foreground. but rewind a little. theres a dog in here #im outsourcing my labor again the old new hires are slacking on the job /lh #but shoutout becsprite. good job. you get a fuckin uhhh. milkbone. thats a dogs thing right. idk i had a phobia of them till like. Recently

[scarecrow-in-a-hatake]

Sorry, Hokage-sama, but even you aren't immune to indecency laws. Afraid we're going to have to bring you in.

-🐾🐾

It was twenty-one hundred hours and I was within my own home. I know my rights, Inuzuka-san.

#Yes yes I know it's a joke #Good to see the Fuma clan outsourcing positions in the new police force when optimal though #in the spring days || other faces #anonymous #blank period #naruto rp

[helennorvilles]

trying to work out the complex bullshit of 12yo girl friendship troubles should be like, a whole unit in an education degree tbh

#i literally outsourced helping these kids w/ it all today. i just wasn't getting through to them so i made it wellbeing's problem #but now i still have to to (and for other reasons too) devise a new seating plan #and it's at a point where it's like. almost a fifty fifty split of the girls. like they're two teams against each other?? #shout out to my lovely girls stuck in the middle who don't care about any of the dumb shit the rest argue about <3 #but of course you have to split up the noisy kids to! and guess who is on the same side of the schism :):):) #addressing the delicate ecosystem inside a classroom should also be an entire unit at uni #but instead they taught us useless shit #but god i just want to smash this out so i can think about the newsreader again!!! pls!!!! #my post tag

[fallout-fallen-knight]

Alright Khan mutuals I have a question: do you think there’s a way for the Great Khans to stay in the Mojave post-Hoover Dam, or are they always fated to leave or be killed? I want to include some (not necessarily all) Khans in my post-NV canon but the slideshow is pretty clear about what happens to them

#queue #fallout new vegas #falloutfun #great khans #papa khan #outsource your worldbuilding folks

[taeminshomosexualvape]

chanting to myself like a mantra: hybe fully absorbed source and pledis (100% and 85% of shares respectively) and those labels are run artistically the same way as they were before the m&a

#me when i heard the news: if they don’t do sm town concerts anymore i’ll scream and throw up and burn hybe down #i’m at work now in the actual office where i do things with money and financials already SO NOW IM THINKING ABOUT IT 🙄🙄🙄 #let me relax #but anyway…………………i think i’m less worried #even if hybe buys more shares (which they said they wanna do) i don’t think they’re going to like change things artistically for sm artists #esp since sm uses a lot of different outsourced resources (directors choreographers producers) #my only concern is the control hybe has over cash flow ie cash flow to certain artists #but considering the minority shares they hold #and also i do not think they’re incredibly STUPID #but any kind of shareholder vote over reducing cash flow to projects like older groups or idols (kangta boa tvxq) #would blow up in hybes face #and since they only care abt increasing profits

[acheronist]

anyways i know a lot of you don't follow me for art/etsy business specific things but I ordered a new printer today becoz the one I had been using was approximately 15 years old. SO HOPEFULLY ANYWAYS stickers will be a nicer quality soon & i'll have more mini prints readily available in my shop :-) !!!

#exciting news for sable cat enjoyers #I DONT HAVE TO OUTSOURCE AS MUCH everyone please clap & also spend $5 buying a sticker

[man-bat]

🦇❤️

batblob fresh from the dryer!!! he's in a laundry basket @maeowlart thank you for cleaning him off for me!

🚫 DO NOT 🚫 send me a 🦇 and i’ll draw a batblob

#ask #askblob #outsourced #<- new tag for the outsourced blobs