There was a long article about how they have to do it in an office, and how you can't bring any electronics with you, and how you have to click a special button when you go to pee, and there's a daily limit on how much you can use it.
I know someone who works in content moderation at Google and they said the company requires them to come in to the office for data security reasons. They even have to put their phone in a locker while they are actually reviewing content. I think it makes sense considering the kind of content they review (including CSAM).
I believe that using the line 'our lines are busy right now' cuts down on complaints. I assume this was A/B tested and found that it has the same effect.
Until very recently, Google Play also had a similar notice without mentioning COVID when an app was in for review.
Frankly: Google is only now-ish regaining the balance from the hiring slowdown COVID brought. It isn't far-fetched that some team went short-staffed until recently. And then, updating notices was not their top priority.
It seems perfectly plausible that the reviewers they do have are busier right now, because more people are using and abusing facebook, so they have "fewer available".
The biggest unreported scandal in big tech is the 100s of 1000s of contractors that work exclusively for these companies. Accenture provides thousands of content moderators to FB, none of whom have any recourse to FB HR or rights to pursue union status at FB.
Google is the same.
Why should they have right to pursue union status at FB? They should do that with whatever company is employing them and if there is that many it might even be realistic.
I think it’s BS for the biggest, most profitable companies in the world to subcontract vital work. It’s professional apartheid. If you’re a product manager, you deserve a FB.com email and a sushi bar in the office and the best benefits, but if you are an Accenture contractor that reports to that FB product manager, you get no benefits. For all the talk of pay equity that activists within these companies do, they are largely silent on the pay disparities between themselves and the outsourced contractors on which they are utterly dependent.
Covid is just a convenient excuse that people somehow still keep swallowing. If 2 years on covid is still a problem for you, that's less the fault of covid and more that you are incompetent at running your business.
Surprisingly enough I've had more "our response to covid-19" and similar crap from tech companies that would be near-immune to it than from companies that would legitimately be impacted by it (those whose business requires on-site staff, etc).
"We have fewer reviewers available right now because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak..."
That smells fishy. Seems like a job that would be a really good fit for work-from-home. Wouldn't you then have more reviewers available?
Or maybe the exposure to graphic content means they do this in the office?