Whose job is it to take out the digital trash?

Dorothea Hoehtker is a senior researcher at the ILO RESEARCH department

How do Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites protect you, the consumer, from disturbing content on the web? Many of us think our computers’ sophisticated algorithms perform such constant editing, but algorithms are not able to make subtle distinctions, e.g. between art and pornography. Rather, technology companies rely on people to do this work. They are the so-called Commercial Content Moderators (CCM).
While CCMs remain largely invisible, some scholars, journalists and artists have started to bring attention to this workforce and the toll editing the Internet takes on them.

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How decent work for indigenous peoples helps advance the fight against climate change

Rishabh Kumar Dhir: Technical Officer, GED; Martin Oelz: Senior Specialist on Equality and Non-Discrimination, GED; Marek Harsdorff: Expert, Green Jobs.

Did you know that Brazilian forests managed by indigenous peoples had near-zero deforestation while forests outside their protected areas had much higher deforestation leading to 27 times more carbon dioxide emissions? This is just one among several examples of how indigenous peoples are playing their part to fight climate change.

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Preparing the Future of Work we want

Deborah Greenfield, ILO’s Deputy Director-General for Policy

The ILO’s centenary in 2019 will arrive at a time when the world of work is at a crossroads. On the heels of the Great Recession that brought global unemployment levels to 200 million and led to widespread insecurity, labour markets across the world are undergoing deep transformations. These changes oblige us to rethink what work means and what it entails. They are also challenging societies to find ways to ensure that work delivers the jobs and incomes that people need.

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