Tanushree Core Post #4 (Labour)

Several of the readings for our module on Labour, contend with the idea of “invisible labour”, an almost subterranean “underwater” layer of work that is made invisible to cultivate the myth of the internet as a space of smooth flows, of a direct interaction between platform and user with no middlemen. 

I was quite intrigued by the connections the authors forged between race, gender, class heirarchies and this invisible labour. D’Ignazio and Klien, and Beller, all forge a connection between slavery, capitalism an computation. D’Ignazio and Klien, insist on the need to trace the virtual products of digital technology back to their source. In “Show Your Work”, they argue that forms of labour, beyond the writing of the code also need to be considered. This “underwater labour” - of managers, content moderators, customer service employees, among others - which puts together emotional and affective labour, and technical expertise, needs to be made visible. 

Roberts adds another layer of complexity to these ideas, arguing that there are many layers to the process of content moderation. First, the free labour of the users who flag content, and the labour of the content moderators. This work, which is usually outsourced to women in the global south, working at minimum wage, involves a great deal of emotional and affective labour, because they are confronted with a barrage of disturbing and violent content. 

These content moderation workers occupy an ambivalent sort of position - they are often underpaid and overworked, but they also have a key role in screening the content that we see online, often deciding the tone or “flavour” of the website. However, this is further complicated by the idea that social media sites have their own rules for content moderation, and image to uphold - all of which are quite inextricably connected to ad revenues and profit motives. So even when YouTube ostensibly takes on the responsibility of advocacy, by hosting testimonies against abusers on their platform, this must also be viewed through the ethical/moral prism of the idea that with each click, YouTube earns ad revenue.