"Content moderation—the process of deciding what stays online and what gets taken down— is an indispensable aspect of the social media industry. Without it, online platforms would be inundated not just by spam, but by personal bullying, neo-Nazi screeds, terrorist beheadings, and child sexual abuse. Despite the centrality of content moderation, however, major social media companies have marginalized the people who do this work, outsourcing the vast majority of it to third-party vendors [...] Examples include custome-help centers in the Philippines, digital device factories in China, and clothing-production facilities in Bangladesh. Outsourcing is not inherently detrimental—if workers are paid fairly and treated humanely. A central question raised by outsourcing, in whatever industry it occurs, is whether it leads to worker exploitation. In social media, there’s an additional concern about whether outsourcing jeopardizes optimal performance of a critical function." (Executive summary)