The Internet is a place where we can find a variety of content. All of us are aware that there are always desirable materials in the network. Fortunately, the darkest corners of the Internet are not readily available. You can not find obscene materials in the search engines or on general use web pages general thanks to special teams of people. They work for big IT companies, including Microsoft.
These contents are distributed via encrypted sites with random links. But it is enough to go deeper into the network, to find such content, which every normal person does not want to watch. However, some people have to do it, if only so that we and our children can sleep peacefully. For this group of people include employees of various companies and corporations who have the task of searching such materials and eliminating them from the Internet.
This work is not easy and requires very strong mental health.
Every person with a healthy psyche in contact at least one day with such materials would have nightmares and vomiting. These people are doing it every day. It turns out that two employees of just such a department filed a lawsuit against their employer. They claim that bosses do not provide them adequate working conditions, and that destroyed their mental health and private lives. The company, which has been accused, it is Microsoft. Employees of departments responsible for getting rid of the obscene content argue that the work in such a position had exposed them to PTSD. There is no reason, of course, that we should not believe these people. About PTSD is recently very loud. Especially if we think about soldiers returning from the missions. Why do those every day watching movies with rape, child pornography, or recordings of real murders would not have to be exposed to similar psychological damage?
The fact, that we do not find to obscene content on the Web, does not mean that this is not there.
Victims men worked in the section of Online Safety Team. Their duties were to verify the content submitted by people. It was not either of hate speech or nudity. The work was much more brutal. The theme entries were contents that were reported to the law enforcement authorities, e.g. child pornography, rape, sadism and murders. According to these gentlemen, their task was to clean the network from such content. The worst thing in all this is that, according to their testimony, they did not receive adequate support from the employer, such as additional leave days, or counseling.
Now the workers are demanding compensation from the company.
However, they do not want to stop there. They expect that the employer accede to their proposals for changes in the way of work of such teams. According to them, it would be beneficial to extend vacation from such tasks and co-operate with a psychologist. Such activities can help cope with stress. Employees also are asking for help for their families, which also are exposed to stress caused by this work. If they manage to win the case, it could trigger a series of changes of a global nature. Remember that these teams are in any large organization like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Probably in each company this work looks very similar.
