All the raises will vary by region—for example, content moderators in the Bay Area, New York City or Washington, D.C. will get at least US$22 an hour; in Seattle, at least US$20; other metro areas will get at least US$18. Content moderators will get onsite counselling and new tools on the platform to customize how they can view content, such as temporarily blurring images. (VentureBeat)

Talking point: In February, The Verge reported on Facebook third-party content moderators who said they were making US$28,800 a year and were suffering from PTSD-like symptoms after leaving the company, at which point they were no longer eligible for support from Facebook or Cognizant, the firm they worked for. The changes are similar to what Google’s contract workers have been calling for. After the company’s full-time employees’ global walkout in 2018, contractors joined in asking for better working conditions and pay, though they’ve so far been largely unsuccessful. Facebook introduced a US$15 minimum hourly wage for its contractors in 2015, and this is its first standardized raise since then. However, the nature of the content-moderation job requires viewing graphic or upsetting images on a regular basis, the effects of which pay raises and viewing tools alone may not be able to cover—something the company itself acknowledged in its post, saying Monday’s announcement was the first of many plans to address the issue.