An insightful look at the invisible workers who protect us from seeing the worst of humanity on today's commercial internet. Social media can be a nightmarish place. The primary line of defense against storms of hate, violent videos, and online cruelty posted by users is not an algorithm, but humans. More than 100,000 professional content moderators evaluate posts on mainstream social media platforms: enforcing internal policies, training artificial intelligence systems, and actively checking and removing offensive material.  

Sarah T. Roberts, an award-winning social media sociologist, offers the first extensive ethnographic study of the commercial content moderation industry. Based on interviews with workers from Silicon Valley to the Philippines, in small companies and large social media corporations, she provides context for the unknowns of this field and examines the emotional toll it takes on workers. This revealing research on the people "behind the screen" offers insights into the reality of our commercial internet and the future of global work in the digital age.