Late in 2023, the third-party contractor hired Solomon, a young East African man, as a content moderator. He started his new adventure at Meta’s Octagon building in Accra, Ghana. What he thought would be the start of his professional career became a life-threatening ordeal. It caused him to wrestle with debilitating mental illness. His story illuminates the harsh realities encountered by those who are put in charge of protecting us all from the darkest depths of the internet.
On his first day, Solomon was not exposed to any taboo content. However, this soon changed. Not surprisingly, as he became more comfortable in the role, he started to face more disturbing imagery that really tested his psyche. Videos of beheadings, child abuse, bestiality—all the things no human being should have to see on a daily basis. One particular incident involved a graphic video of a person being gradually skinned alive, leaving Solomon profoundly shocked and traumatized.
Solomon approached the sobering content with extraordinary bravery. He was given just two weeks of training before being plugged into this difficult line of work. That training couldn’t help him acclimate to the scale and depravity of the material he would access every day. As the years went on, he started to realize that he was becoming numb to blood and violence.
I didn’t know the nature of the job, actually,” Solomon admitted. I did not expect the first thing I’ll see in a day to be people skinned alive and porn videos … I would get freaked out when I’d see blood, but you just kind of get desensitized. Little by little I think it’s changing my heart … I’m just fighting. Not to exaggerate, it’s 100% changed me.
His personal experiences were exacerbated by what he felt was an absence of support from his employer. Solomon even went so far as to say he felt like a piece of equipment that would just be thrown away after the game.
“They treated me like a water bottle – you drink water and throw the bottle away.” – Solomon
Just a few months into the job, the burden of processing such traumatic material began to impact Solomon’s mental health. Following his dismissal from Meta, he was offered a transfer to a lower-paid position by Teleperformance, which operates as a contractor for Meta. When he realized that the salary cut would leave him unable to live in Accra, he rejected the offer.
Desperate and overwhelmed, Solomon tried to take her life and was later hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. There, he was given a diagnosis of major depressive disorder with suicidal ideation. He was sent home after eight days of treatment and decided to go back to Ethiopia.
In response to concerns raised about Solomon’s experience, a spokesperson from Teleperformance stated, “During his employment and afterward, we continued offering the employee psychological support, which he has repeatedly declined.” In response, the company’s spokesperson accused Solomon of attempting to blackmail the company. He threatened to go to the media if they didn’t roll over.
Although offered psychological support once more when he returned to Ethiopia, Solomon refused to accept help. The drama from his experiences at Meta is something that weighs heavily on him. Now, he’s left with nobody, feeling alone and untrusting of anyone who comes to his aid.
To everyday Americans, it’s not something they think about—that’s one of the biggest challenges to our content moderation. People like Solomon are left to pay the hidden costs that accompany it. Second, their mental health literally collapses due to the consistent stress of constant exposure to disturbing graphic content. As Solomon pored over his experience, he found himself lamenting a sense of disconnection and absence of rootedness.
“I want to stay with you guys, I want to be in office, I’m scared.” – Solomon