Opinion‘I quit my job as a content moderator. I can never go back to who I was before.’

How a former content moderator thinks about the job.

Illustrated by Maya Scarpa for The Washington Post. Beatrix Lockwood spoke to Alberto Cuadra, a former content moderator for a popular video streaming...more
Illustrated by Maya Scarpa for The Washington Post. Beatrix Lockwood spoke to Alberto Cuad...more

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Alberto Cuadra worked as a content moderator at a video-streaming platform for just under a year, but he saw things he’ll never forget. He watched videos about murders and suicides, animal abuse and child abuse, sexual violence and teenage bullying — all so you didn’t have to. What shows up when you scroll through social media has been filtered through an army of tens of thousands of content moderators, who protect us at the risk of their own mental health.

Opinion by
Beatrix Lockwood is the newsletter strategy editor for The Washington Post's Opinions section.
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