This article contains references to self-harm and suicide
When Emmanuel landed in Ghana, he was full of hope.
He had escaped the turmoil and danger of his home country back in East Africa, and was about to start a job working for one of the most famous companies in the world.
“It was a big opportunity for me to be hired and to work [for Meta],” he says, recalling how excited he felt that he would get to work on the same social media apps he scrolled through every day. “Working there is a big deal.”
Emmanuel, whose real name we are not disclosing, felt he had finally landed on his feet. While his pay pack was slim at less than £100 a month, Meta’s outsourcing company provided him with accommodation at a 4-star apartment that came with a pool. His modest pay was also above the Ghanian minimum wage.
“I was very surprised. I thought of myself as one of the luckiest people… I was very happy. But things changed.”
Emmanuel was excited to work for Meta through an outsourcing company but the role changed his life for the worst (Photo: Getty)Within a year of signing his contract with Meta’s outsourcing company, Emmanuel’s mental health was stretched to breaking point after reviewing endless disturbing footage, such as people being skinned alive, in his role as a content moderator.
And his accommodation, his refuge from the harrowing scenes he had to review for hours on end, was cramped and unsafe. He says he and others were left without running water and electricity. Emmanuel says at one point they were instructed to share beds with each other and were unable to do basic things such as wash when the taps would not turn on.
The i Paper has seen photos, videos and WhatsApp messages detailing the unhygienic and alarming conditions where staff allegedly were sent to live.
This includes messages of staff earning less than £5 a day pleading for the lights to be turned back on and people unable to wash themselves or their clothes despite the sweltering temperatures in Accra.
The insight into the poor living conditions of outsourced Meta staff in West Africa comes after reports emerged of a mental health crisis among these workers who spent hours watching graphic footage, including of children being murdered.
Meta, who owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is facing three lawsuits relating to the treatment of outsourced workers in Kenya and Ghana.
‘One of the luckiest people… but things changed’
Emmanuel says it was not until he had signed his contract in December 2023 and began training that he gained a proper understanding of what his role involved. He also found he had “impossible” targets to hit in order to supplement his lower basic pay with a bonus.
He would have to work through an average of 500 to 600 pieces of content at speed while moderating them with 85 per cent accuracy to confirm whether or not the post should be removed. His work was then checked by both another human moderator and artificial intelligence to ensure he was performing at the right accuracy levels.
“The first weeks I didn’t come across any disturbing things, [it was more] hate speech and comments, but gradually I started coming across some disturbing and graphic content.
“It was people being skinned alive, people slaughtered, child abuse and bestiality. There were many worse things.”
He was shocked and disturbed by what he had to watch, but over time became desensitised and sucked into a culture of black humour in his office.
“I even started enjoying the content. I was very happy to see people being slaughtered and skinned alive. I was making fun out of it, which is not normal and against humanity.
“I did not intend to normalise [what I saw], but the system brought me to the level that I normalised it… For the first few weeks we [Emmanuel and his colleagues] were very afraid. We were very scared of watching our screens. But gradually things became normal… we started normalising it.”
Content moderators assess whether posts on Facebook and Instagram break Meta’s rules, meaning they must either be removed or given a warning (Photo: Facebook)He says, in hindsight, he felt as if he was being brainwashed and did not realise how abnormal his response to the disturbing content was for a long time.
This paper was told there were set break times, instead of staff being allowed to take respite as and when they needed it, such as after watching something particularly extreme. Emmanuel said he had to seek permission to use the toilet outside of designated time slots. Managers would reportedly track moderators down if they left their stations.
“One of my supervisors followed me to the toilet. I was very angry and told him not to come and do such shameful things again.
“I felt as if I was their property,” Emmanuel said.
Stagnant water, unable to wash, and sat in the dark
His recovery time away from work also suffered because of poor living conditions.
The reality of the four-star apartment complex in Accra was far from the luxury accommodation shown in the photos.
Messages reviewed by The i Paper reveal residents repeatedly complained about being unable to access running water for days on end. They were unable to wash and clean their clothes in the soaring heat. They routinely had to turn up for work having not showered for days and wearing soiled clothes.
Rusted and broken washing machines, as well as a periods with no running water meant workers were unable to wash their clothesOther messages reveal they were forced to sit in the dark and without air-con as the electricity frequently cut out. This also meant they were unable to cook meals.
The messages and Emmanuel’s own testimony shows those living there begged managers to fix the problems, saying they were struggling, that their lives and health were being seriously affected and they felt they were being exploited. Complaints about access to these basic necessities were often apparently met with excuses or not properly responded to.
Photos and videos show the pool in reality was a dark green source of stagnant water where Emmanuel claims mosquitos laid their eggs. Leaks caused water to pour down the walls and over electric sockets. Washing machines were broken, having rusted over or missing metal panels and being propped up on cinder blocks.
According to Emmanuel, the moderators housed in the apartments had also initially been told they would need to share beds with one another. The resultant outcry from colleagues meant this changed to sharing rooms, in what Emmanuel described as a “crammed” living situation.
After several months of exposure to graphic and extreme content, while living in seemingly squalid conditions, Emmanuel returned home for a week where he learned a close friend had been killed.
This stress on his already fragile mental state saw him suffer a breakdown.
Emmanuel says his employer suspended him for two weeks, leaving him with little to do but sit alone in his apartment where he found replaying in his head the extreme images he had spent months looking at for hours at a time.
“I felt down and depressed… to the point I attempted suicide,” he said.
Emmanuel says he was hospitalised for eight days. He says his bosses ultimately terminated his contract and presented him with a plane ticket to go home, a place no safer than when he left it for his dream job months before.
“I refused. All these things happened because of my job and the company. I said I wouldn’t leave and I wanted a conversation… I felt as if I was used then thrown away.”
Far from luxury… the swimming pool used as a selling point to hire staff was filled with stagnant and unsafe waterHe ultimately turned down a different role in the company as he says it offered lower pay than his previous job, and was forced to return to his family.
To this day Emmanuel claims he is unable to sleep through the night, struggles with flashbacks of the content he watched and is battling depression and dealing with the trauma of his experience.
Holding Meta to account
Emmanuel is one of around 150 content moderators in his former office and is expected to be one of the claimants in a legal claim being prepared against Meta relating to the treatment of staff in the Accra office. Around the world, Meta reports to have 15,000 content moderators operating in 20 locations across the world.
The existence of the Ghana office was not publicly known until it was revealed by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) in April. It opened after a previous office in Kenya was shut down when workers blew the whistle over claims of exploitation and unsafe working conditions.
The Octagon building in Accra, where outsourced Meta moderators work (Photo: Benjamin Adu/The Octagon Accra/Facebook)Some 185 former Facebook moderators from the Nairobi office are now fighting Meta in the courts over their allegedly unlawful mass firing. A second Kenyan case has also been brought by one former Facebook content moderator who alleges Meta unlawfully exploited and mentally harmed him and his colleagues, as well as engaging in efforts to shut down efforts to unionise.
The legal action in both Ghana and Kenya has been supported by British non-profit organisation Foxglove. It campaigns to hold big tech companies to account, and its team met with the Accra-based moderators in March.
Foxglove co-executive director Martha Dark said: “Facebook’s essential safety workers – content moderators – are living in unsafe conditions in Ghana. Moderators like Emmanuel are effectively forced to live crammed two-to-a-room, denying them any private space or dignity, and are even sometimes asked to share beds.”
She added: “These shocking conditions are the latest evidence of the truth at the heart of Meta’s content moderation operation: despite being a trillion dollar company, it simply does not care about its essential safety workers.”
Meta said it was unable to comment because of the legal cases.
Meta has stated their contracts with the outsourcing companies hired by the tech giant for content reviewing detail that staff must have counselling, training and other support, such as access to private health care. Workers must be paid above the industry standard in the local country they work in.
Teleperformance, the outsourcing company hired by Meta to employ moderators in Ghana, did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The i Paper.
Meta owns both Facebook and Instagram (Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty)Responding to previous claims relating to the well-being of its staff in Accra, a spokesperson for Teleperformance said: “We have robust people management systems and workplace practices, including a robust well-being programme staffed by fully licensed psychologists to support our content moderators throughout their content moderation journey”.
It said that prospective moderators are informed about what content they might see during their work and that Emmanuel had no reported depression or psychological concerns before his breakdown. They stated he declined offers of psychological support before and after his employment. They also say Emmanuel was paid compensation in accordance with his contract.
TBIJ reported some staff were paid a base salary of around 1,300 Cedis (£94) a month and said this is far below the average cost of living in the area. Teleperformance said the base pay rate is more than double the country’s minimum wage.
For Emmanuel, becoming a human firewall for violent and extreme content was initially a point of pride, recalling that it felt like “a very big deal and a very nice thing to protect users from receiving such disturbing content. It was a big responsibility for me.”
But the cost of the work and his experience will stay with him for ever, which is why he is speaking out and he hopes future moderators will not face the same circumstances.
“All the flashbacks, all the content, all the incidents of what happened to me are still with me.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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