Ms Frances Haugen:

When we talk about whether we should be focusing on censorship strategies or transparency and platform changes, or changes to the algorithm or design to make it fundamentally safer instead of bolting on a censorship safety system, it is important for us to think about the human costs of trying to implement that censorship system. Timemagazine recently came out with a brutal article about how Facebook treats its moderators who are trying to keep people in Africa safe, how grossly underpaid they are and how little they get by way of mental health supports. Time and again over five to seven years, we have been hearing stories of people getting permanently damaged or coming out of these jobs after three or six months with profound post-traumatic stress disorder. When we focus on censorship strategies instead of strategies that make the systems themselves safer, we end up forcing human beings to spend all day looking at some of the most brutal content in the world. That alone should make us at least pause and ask whether we want a censorship-based solution or to decrease virality, amplification and the safety choices made in the platforms, because there is a real human impact and cost.