I work as an auditor in a big Internet factory

On the first working day after the Spring Festival in 2022, a news of "sudden death of the leader of the audit team of Station B" caused heated discussion in the society. The behind-the-scenes profession of "Internet censor" has also been thrust into the spotlight.

Red Star Capital found that the current situation of Internet auditors is also a microcosm of the growth of the industry. Under the influence of factors such as the huge user volume, massive content information, and fierce platform competition, the working hours of auditors have been extended to 24 hours, and the workload has also increased greatly.

"Have the ability to resist pressure, accept the shift system", the recruitment conditions for Internet content review positions, almost all have this one.

On February 9, Red Star Capital Interviewed auditors and managers of Internet companies such as Tencent and ByteDance to try to restore the real status quo of the auditor industry from their mouths.

Infographic According to IC photo

(i)

"Compressive ability" is a common requirement

Implement a last-place elimination system

At 8 a.m., Wang Sisi, a content reviewer at Tencent, ended her job, her third consecutive "all-night shift."

Walking out of the office building, Wang Sisi felt that her feet were fluttering lightly, "there was no spirit, and there was a little nausea and nausea", she had become accustomed to the feeling after working all night.

After graduating from university in 2019, Wang Sisi came to a second-tier city to find a job, and was attracted by the aura of "Internet giant Tencent", she entered Tencent's subsidiary and became an "Internet content reviewer".

"Review netizen comments", Wang Sisi's work is not complicated. Sitting in front of the workstation, open the computer, log in to the account, the background shows the content that needs to be reviewed, Wang Sisi will quickly and skillfully "scan" again, and then constantly click "recommend, limit, delete".

The comments that are processed usually involve negative, vulgar, abusive and other content, and the company already has a mature set of review standards. Even so, Wang Sisi still tensed his nerves and did not dare to relax, "Once there is a leak that is checked by the quality and complains to the auditor, we will be deducted points and deducted performance." ”

In addition to "quality assurance", the audit work is more important than "quantity", and the monthly audit volume is an important part of Wang Sisi's performance. "We implement a last-place point elimination system, and if the performance is too poor, you will be dissuaded by the HR interview."

"If everyone wants high performance, they will always rush upwards, and the KPIs set will continue to be broken, and the next KPI will continue to rise," Wang Sisi said. Auditors who do not want to be beaten down their performance are caught in a state of "inner volume".

The pace of work that has been accelerating makes Wang Sisi feel a little "tired", and at the same time, she has to adapt to the non-stop shift. "From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. it is an early shift, from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. it is a late shift, and there will be two all-night shifts a month, and we are most afraid of the all-night shift, which is difficult to stay up," Wang Sisi said.

The "all-night shift" generally starts at 10 p.m. and ends at 8 a.m. the next morning, with a 3-hour break in between. Often when she goes to the second overnight shift, Wang Sisi will have a feeling of nausea and nausea, vomiting, she is worried about physical problems, she will put down the mouse to rest for a while, and then pick up the spirit to continue the work behind.

"The most uncomfortable thing is the few days after the overnight shift, the whole person's schedule is reversed, and I can't sleep in the middle of the night." After working all night, Wang Sisi often has insomnia, her eyesight has dropped badly, and frozen shoulder and lumbar muscle strain are common problems among colleagues.

Compared with the tiredness of the body, Wang Sisi felt that the psychological pressure made her "breathless".

"The review time is long, there will be some psychological shadow of some offensive insults and bloody violent content", looking at these contents, Wang Sisi often feels that she is also suffering from online violence, she remembered that a long time ago, when a female colleague went to an all-night shift, she reviewed the horror video, and since then there has been a psychological barrier.

(ii)

There are college students and 985 graduates

Attracted by the "aura of the big factory"

On January 9, 2019, the China Online Audiovisual Program Service Association issued the "Specifications for the Management of Online Short Video Platforms" and the "Detailed Rules for the Standards for The Review of Online Short Video Content". It stipulates that programs, comments, bullet screens and other content published by short video platforms must be reviewed first and then released; and 20 categories and 100 small articles of prohibited content are listed in detail.

The landing of the new rules on auditing also means that the review of Internet platforms needs to be more detailed and more extensive, and expanding the audit team has become an urgent need of major Internet companies.

Sun Xun, who graduated in 985, and Tang Sen, who graduated from college, joined the position of content reviewer in this context. The requirements for academic qualifications and work experience of audit positions are not uniform.

"This position is a bit anti-human", recalling the days of being a content reviewer at ByteDance 3 years ago, Sun Xun's impression is not good. After graduating from graduate school, Sun Xun, who studied small languages, entered Beijing ByteDance to work responsible for the content review of an information APP. Compared with the shift, Sun Xun's deepest impression of this job is "heavy workload".

"[The department] will set up a workload that no one can touch the fish, so that your work is saturated," Sun Xun said. Over time, the saturated workload, mechanized operation mode, and repetitive work content made Sun Xun feel like a machine. "Most importantly, there is no future in this job", 5 months later, Sun Xun submitted an application to leave.

Leaving at almost the same time as Sun Xun was another content moderator, ByteDance, Townsend. "The job is to eat youth, there is no development," Townsend said.

Townsend is also attracted by the aura of the Internet giant, she likes to play vibrato, and is full of expectations for ByteDance's work. When working as a content reviewer, Townsend's department has 200-300 audits per person per day, and the workload of the department is 500-600. At that time, the division of labor had not yet been refined, and Townsend had to review videos, pictures, headlines, detail page text, and e-commerce advertising.

With such a work intensity, Townsend can still adapt, but the overnight shift of 5-6 times a month makes her a little overwhelmed, and she finally chooses to leave. On February 7, Townsend saw the news of "the sudden death of the audit team leader of the B station" and felt some regret, "taking care of your own body is the most important", she said.

When he saw the one-sided negative comments on Internet reviewers on social platforms, Townsend felt that in fact, the job also had a good side, and the salaries and benefits given by Internet companies were not many. "The salary is more than 6,000 yuan, and overtime is also subsidized", which is enough for Tang Sen, who just graduated from college at that time, enough for her to live in Chengdu.

Wang Sisi also mentioned that Tencent's content reviewer positions are divided according to rank, and the salary is usually around 5,000-10,000 yuan, in addition to performance pay and overtime pay on holidays. "Compared with the audit posts of other Internet companies, our salary is quite high," Wang Sisi said.

Satisfied with his salary, there is also Liu Licheng, who is an advertising reviewer in ByteDance's advertising service platform.

Liu Licheng's job is to review whether video ads violate the law according to the provisions of the Advertising Law. Compared with the huge amount of information that content moderation needs to face, the work content of advertising moderation is much more "simple".

"7-8 days of rest per month, the night shift has subsidies, after 10 pm taxi, the company also reimburses the fare, overtime wages are calculated according to 1.5 times the usual, and there is a room supplement of 500 yuan nearby", Liu Licheng counted the company's welfare, calculating that the monthly salary was about 8,000 yuan, he felt very satisfied.

(iii)

"It's like the Foxconn assembly line on the line"

But in the short term, it is difficult to be replaced by AI

Compared with the complex attitude of the auditor, Deng Jun, who is in the audit management position, thinks further.

Deng Jun, who has extensive experience in the Internet, currently manages a content moderation department at a leading Internet company with dozens of employees. When the Red Star Capital Bureau asked about the characteristics of the content review post, Deng Jun said: "This post has no characteristics, that is, labor-intensive industries, which is the biggest feature." ”

In Deng Jun's view, content moderation is not an emerging profession spawned by the Internet, but also exists in some traditional industries. But the development of the mobile Internet has indeed promoted the outbreak of the audit industry. "Nowadays, the dissemination of information is faster, the dissemination of more content, the platform must take the main responsibility, filter out harmful content, and purify the network environment, so the establishment of content review posts is the core and key step."

"Why do you ask for content moderation shifts, because users also post information at night," Deng said. The current situation of Internet auditors is also a microcosm of the growth of the industry. Under the influence of factors such as the huge user volume, massive content information, and fierce platform competition, the working hours of auditors have been extended to 24 hours, and the workload has also increased greatly.

Deng Jun, who has worked in the audit management post for nearly 3 years, feels that the audit industry is actually at the lowest end of the Internet, the value recognition is not high, the threshold is extremely low, and there is no technical accumulation.

"Many Internet companies will outsource the entire content moderation business, just like an online Foxconn factory assembly line. But the good thing is that the overall salary and benefits of the Internet are still good, and the working atmosphere of young people is also very good," Deng Jun said.

In addition, the Internet audit industry has also provided a large number of jobs for some new first-tier, second- and third-tier cities to solve local employment needs. Red Star Capital Bureau searched for Internet company names + audit positions on the recruitment platform and found that many Internet platforms have audit centers in Tianjin, Jinan, Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan and other cities. According to Late Post, the number of byteDance's reviewers has exceeded 20,000 in early 2021.

It is worth mentioning that the current low-end, repetitive audit work may soon be replaced by AI technology. In July 2019, today's headlines announced the official launch of a new version of the "Greyhound" anti-vulgar assistant. In September 2020, Little Red Book added the audit mode of "multi-dimensional algorithm model" to the "Woodpecker" plan. Kuaishou has also applied AI technology to content moderation.

"But in the short term, AI technology cannot completely replace manual review, and the platform still needs to rely on human experience and judgment to screen content," Deng Jun told Red Star Capital Bureau.

Whether the current situation of Internet auditors can be rapidly improved is still a problem to be solved.

(At the request of the interviewee, the above are pseudonyms)

Red Star News reporter Yu Yao Qiang Ya Milling

Edited by Yu Dongmei

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