Communication in the conference Freedom and Control of Digital Expression, Toulouse, October 2016

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. The reality
User 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

5. 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Moral and ethical codes of CCM workers superseded by the dictates of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

6. CCM on news websites
Content 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

7. News websites CCM in France
There 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

8. How does CCM work ?
Publication of
« accepted »
comments
Comments
input
Proprietary
software that
detects risky
content
Publication of
comments
On « safe
« content
A posteriori
human
intervention
Rejected
content
A priori
human
intervention
Rejected
content

9. 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”

10. 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

11. 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”

12. 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

13. Conclusion
CCM 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)