Watch Workers Learn How to Filter Obscene and Violent Photos From Dating Sites

For all the excitement about policing the web with image detection algorithms, machine learning, and other tools, the task of keeping the internet functioning and habitable still falls to people. Beneath the slick automation of companies like Google and Facebook hides a hidden army of manual laborers--many in countries like India and the Philippines. They perform the tedious, disturbing task that machines still can't, and that most Americans won't: Filtering social media sites for obscenities, abuse, and violence. In their short documentary The Moderators, filmmakers Adrian Chen and Ciaran Cassidy go inside an Indian firm doing that work, capturing a week-long training session for new employees. Their film, which WIRED is premiering online, centers on a group of young Indians starting their first jobs for Bangalore-based Foiwe Info Global Solutions, whose clients include a handful of dating sites in the US, Europe, and India.