Tik Tok staff are actively researching content

Two years ago, Imani was shocked when she saw a video on Tik Tok of a young man throwing a cat in the air and stabbing it with a sword. “I love cats,” said the girl who now works in the Casablanca office. “I never thought I would see a scene like this in real life. But this is not a movie, this is not a joke, this is reality.”

Psychic Obsession

Two years later, the video is still burned into Imani’s mind. “I try to distance myself from bad memories. I want everything to be just work, so don’t worry. I have young children,” she said.

Imani works in the content moderation department for TikTok in the Middle East and North Africa through a Luxembourg-based third-party company called Majorelle. She’s part of a team that specializes in investigating TikTok’s “horrific” videos, including those pertaining to suicide and child abuse.

In 2020, Imani was accepted by Mejole despite only being paid $2 an hour. However, she considered herself lucky as it was difficult to find a job at the time and she was granted telecom services. However, she was unaware of the amount of psychological damage this job was causing.

Imani is not alone. About 9 people who work or have worked at Majorelle censor content on TikTok, even after years without work. According to these folks, Majorel and TikTok require harsh environments, constant surveillance, and often “impossible” goals.

“The biggest problem at work, in my opinion, is that you slowly get sick and you don’t even realize it. At first you think it’s not a big problem, but later it will be there,” said ex-member Wisam. from the organization. Tik Tok moderators said.

Prior to Tik Tok, Wissam was an experienced moderator of Facebook content. According to him, the meta-platform has a large user base and therefore a lot of malicious content, but the short video network ByteDance faces a similar problem with its rapidly growing number of participants. Finally, censoring content that only uses video is more psychologically damaging.

According to research by Insider Intelligence, the number of Tik Tok users in the Middle East and North Africa is expected to grow by 30 percent this year. Majel’s former mentor estimates that there are currently 1,400 TikTok content moderators in Morocco.

Similar to Meta, Tik Tok uses artificial intelligence to categorize content, but the short video network system is less effective for English and Chinese language clips.

Hard work

23-year-old Samira joined Majorl in 2020. Exploring TikTok Lives in July. Originally tasked with watching 200 videos an hour, she was tasked with deleting 95% of the reviews. After three months, the manager steadily increased the stats to the point where she only had 10 seconds to watch the video.

“They see us as robots, not as people,” says Samira.

Share with. insider6 out of 9 people said Majel and TikTok goals are too hard to achieve. Failure to meet the target will result in a reprimand or reduction in benefits of $50 per month.

During his career, Samira was appalled by many videos, particularly clips dealing with violence and guns. “I couldn’t turn around because I was watching videos that didn’t have any warning labels,” Samira said. After that video, she was forced to hire a monthly home health and psychiatric consultant.

Psychotherapy is considered a luxury in Morocco. “We used to say if someone went to therapy, ‘Oh, that’s crazy,'” said Nidal, a former major league anchor who worked on Facebook and TikTok. But now, he said, it’s very common.

Dr. Jihad Benimosa, psychologist and CEO of health tech startup InspiriCorp, said the company has a long customer waiting list. Psychotherapy in Morocco can cost as much as $30 per session, which is quite expensive compared to the $500 a month a facilitator makes.

Mallorelli’s TikTok moderators spend less time than their American counterparts. In America they have three breaks a day with a one-hour lunch break, while in Morocco they only get a 40-45 minute break and a one-hour lunch break.

In addition, working hours also seem to be less constant. She is sometimes asked to work with Imani from noon to midnight. “I work more than 12 hours every day, although the actual hours on the contract are less. Because of this, I can’t take care of the baby,” Imani said.

Many employees and ex-majors previously responsible for controlling content on Facebook and TikTok are afraid to speak out because they don’t want to be held accountable. “The corporate culture favors secrecy. If you speak openly about the company’s situation, you may get hurt,” one person explained.

Six months ago, Samina decided to leave Majorelle, but the obsession didn’t stop. “I am angry and scared that one day my son, brother or grandson will see something like this,” Samira said.

Bao Lam (Consequences Business Insider)