Meta moderators have been already in Texas earlier than Zuckerberg introduced transfer, say ex-workers

In a fastidiously worded assertion, Mark Zuckerberg introduced final week that Meta is shifting its belief and security and content material moderation groups out of California and that the corporate’s content material evaluation “goes to be based mostly in Texas”. The thrust of those groups’ work is to make sure that Fb and Instagram customers don’t encounter hate speech, pornography and violent content material.

The CEO mentioned shifting the moderators to the Lone Star state “will assist take away the priority that biased staff are overly censoring content material”. It was a part of a bigger announcement that Meta was ending its fact-checking program, easing content material restrictions and specializing in “free expression”. Moderators are separate from Meta’s fact-checking efforts, which have been executed by third events.

Former Fb staff say, nevertheless, that the move-to-Texas announcement rings hole. That’s as a result of Meta already has main content material moderation and belief and security operations within the state. They are saying the transfer is nothing greater than a blatant enchantment to Donald Trump. Fb’s former head of content material requirements mentioned he helped arrange these groups in Texas greater than a decade in the past.

“They made numerous hay of: ‘Oh, we’re nervous about bias, we’re shifting all these content material moderation groups to different locations,’” Dave Willner mentioned throughout a Lawfare panel final week. “So far as I’ve been in a position to determine, that’s principally faux.”

Three different former Fb staff who labored on the belief and security groups in Texas informed the Guardian the identical. One mentioned many individuals throughout Meta’s varied divisions did belief and security work within the firm’s Austin workplaces. One other mentioned that numerous content material moderators, together with these allotted to the belief and security groups, have been in Austin for a very long time. All have been granted anonymity for concern {of professional} reprisal.

“They’ve at all times had individuals there,” one former worker within the belief and security division mentioned. “They might be shifting extra individuals there, however positioning it as if they’re doing one thing new to deal with liberal California bias is laughable at greatest.”

The relocation of groups to Texas and the top of fact-checking are clear indicators that Zuckerberg has undergone an about-face transformation from his 2016 mission to deal with misinformation. He has made a number of strikes to enchantment to the incoming president, who had beforehand lambasted Zuckerberg for election interference and threatened him with “life in jail”. Zuckerberg reportedly met with Trump the day earlier than his announcement and spent Friday night at Mar-a-Lago.

Willner mentioned Meta’s halt to fact-checking, together with different main adjustments on the firm, gained’t be the top of the social media platform’s “actually wild swings”.

“To me, what this inaugurates is an period of numerous twisting within the wind,” Willner mentioned. “I feel we’re going to see this rush in a single path and we’re going to see a rush again in one other path.”

Meta has a number of workplaces in Texas, principally clustered in Austin – a progressive metropolis within the conservative state. The corporate, which owns Fb, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark. It didn’t reply questions on what number of staff shall be affected and if belief and security groups are shifting to Texas or just “out of California”. Meta additionally didn’t reply to questions on whether or not the affected staff are full-time staff or contractors.

One former worker informed the Guardian that Meta has been “chopping corners” on belief and security for some time. Whereas the corporate had full-time staff engaged on these points in Austin for years, the previous worker mentioned that, extra not too long ago, it started outsourcing extra content material moderator work to contractors. Meta has lengthy employed contractors as content material moderators in Texas. One of many third-party corporations it really works carefully with, Accenture, has a number of main workplaces there.

1000’s of full-time staff work for Meta in Texas in a number of completely different departments. Greater than 220 staff have been laid off within the state in 2022, nevertheless, as half of a giant restructuring of the social media firm. In all, Meta laid off greater than 11,000 staff worldwide with Zuckerberg deeming it the “12 months of effectivity”. Meta’s belief and security groups have been among the hardest hit.