Moderating comments for French news websites: a socio-economic

approach Nikos Smyrnaios, University of Toulouse

Freedom and Control of Digital Expression - University of Toulouse - October 2016

Research question & method

How does comment moderation work on news sites, what are the sociopolitical and economic stakes?

6 interviews and ethnographic observations of working conditions inside a French firm that operates comment

moderation for national and local news sites

Study of online testimonies of moderators, interviews, videos etc.

Longtime observation of the evolution of online journalism in France & particularly of its (non) participatory culture

The commonplace

Since the advent of Web 2.0 in the mid-2000 the Internet is seen as:

A “naturally” democratic, inclusive means of communication

Driven by the ideal of “user participation”

Offering “desintermediated, direct and equal” access to online public expression for all

The realityUser Generated Content has acquired economic value and

has been industrialized

In a time of political crisis and economic uncertainty, participatory culture has been “invaded” by racism, sexism,

xenophobia, trolling and propaganda

Publishers outsource moderation (often in poor countries of the South) because doing that internally is too expensive

Some of them, especially news websites, have completely removed commentaries

Facebook has a monopolistic control on this kind of public expression

What’s content moderation ?There is very little research on the subject

Sarah T. Roberts defines content moderators as “workers (who) act as digital gatekeepers for a platform, company, brand, or site, deciding what content will make it to the

platform”

Commercial Content Moderation (CCM) as opposed to moderation that takes place on non commercial platforms

(e.g. Wikipedia)

CCM not an industry unto itself but a series of shared practices in a variety of worksites: e.g. low paid but very demanding

labour

CCM workers are “invisible” but they shape the internet

Moral and ethical codes of CCM workers superseded by the dictates of the companies that hire them

CCM on news websitesContent moderation on news websites mostly on readers’

comments. Since mid-2000 exponential growth of comments

Parallel growth of racist, violent, sexist and insulting comments

In most European countries publishers, unlike service providers, are liable for any content present on their website

Impossible for journalists to read and/or moderate all comments. Publishers outsource moderation or completely

remove them

Two main objectives of CCM on news websites:

- Protect publishers from legal risks - Define the standards and the rules of the discussion in the

comment section

News websites CCM in FranceThere are three main companies that offer CCM services to

news websites: Netino, Concileo, Atchik

An important market: e.g. Le Monde receives around 100k commentaries a month, pays a monthly fee of €20k

Netino & Concileo are bigger and their clients are the most important media in France: Le Monde, Le Figaro, TF1 etc.

Both outsource their activity to firms based in the South: Netino in Magadascar, Consileo in Morocco. Only Atchik’s activity is completely internalised and based in France

Work conditions in CCM are close to those of call centres: repetitive and sometimes depressing work, low pay, 24/H

7d/week work hours

How does CCM work ?

Publication of « accepted » comments

Comments input

Proprietary software that detects risky

content

Publication of

commentsOn « safe « 

content

A posteriori human

intervention

Rejected content

A priori human

intervention

Rejected content

How does CCM work ?The rules for comment rejection are based on two principles:

- Legal risks: libel, racism, violence etc. (common for all the publishers)

- Editorial chart: caps lock, orthographic errors, chatting, provocations at the limit of the law, off topic comments

Some publishers publish provocative comments to create buzz (La Dépêche), others let their readers chat between

them even off topic to emulate community sentiment (RTL)

Moderators have to interpret these rules in real time and adapt themselves to each publisher’s editorial policy

They have strong productivity constraints (400 comments an hour) & are “supervised” in order to maintain “quality”

The rules

How does CCM work ?The Charlie Hebdo attacks were a milestone: the number of

comments has risen significantly and hasn’t diminished since

More and more comments are characterised by a new kind of right wing discourse: “identitarian”

e.g. “we are at home”, “French of origin”, “Poor France”, 732, “the great replacement”, “chance pour la France”

Moderators need to master this codes

There is both a rise in organized extremist activism (coordinated comments on a particular subject e.g. Marine Le

Pen)

But also a general sense of scepticism and anger that express itself through hate speech but also conspiracy theories

The rules

How does CCM work ?It’s difficult for moderators to be confronted to hate speech all

day everyday but they say they get used to it:

“I prepare myself psychologically when I see there is some big event on the news”,

“We chat and laugh about all the hate messages between moderators in order to pass the day”

“Being muslim, in the beginning it was really violent, I thought I was leaving in a bubble (my family, my neighbourhood) and

everyone outside was racist. Then I thought that commentators are not representative”

“I think myself as the cleaner of the web, I clean up the crap so that normal user don’t have to see it”

The rules

How does CCM work ?The hardship of the job is due to low pay (basic salary in

France, €1200-1400) even if moderators are very qualified (Bachelors & Masters Diplomas)

Managers justify that by saying that competitors pay moderators €300/month in Madagascar and Morrocco

Hard working hours (rarely they get a normal weekend), shifts start at 6am and finish at midnight, and there is always

someone on alert in case (stress)

Constant surveillance, like in call centres, and pressure for productivity, Repetitive tasks, “mental gymnastics”

The turnover is very important, people stay two years maximum, it is no place to start a career

The rules

ConclusionCCM is a central service in contemporary media

It is a filter that materializes a complex set of socio-political and economic logics:

- Legal framework of Freedom of expression

- Editorial but also marketing strategies of publishers

- Economic strategies of service providers (outsourcing in order to make moderation cheaper, internalizing in France

for “quality”)

- Digital labor exploitation

- Confrontation with political context (rise of xenophobia and identitary politics)

The rules