Fake news flooding the internet, making it hard for users to distinguish them from the real, documented stories. The fallout after the Facebook debacle, causing social media buffs to demand for increased data protection. Business brands pulling out their ads that have been placed beside others that apparently advocate discrimination, violence, and other hate crimes. These are just some of the factors in the past years that have led to the rise of the content moderation agency.

All the turmoil on the internet right now, especially social media, have made companies and consumers alike for the need of moderation in the content that is being posted online. Let’s be clear about this: this is moderation and not censorship. Censorship means the rigid enforcement of rules that can violate the expression of free speech, which is one of the cornerstones of a democracy. It can also prevent healthy and intelligent dialogue among the various communities. Moderation, on the other hand, means making constant and smart decisions on which posts should be inhibited because they can lead to a lot of damage, online and offline. Pornography, snuff shots, violent acts, rants, and raves inciting people to do criminal acts — safe to say no one would protest if the content moderator does not allow any of these posts or videos on the internet. However, it takes a lot of time and discernment to make the right judgment call. That’s why the content moderation agency is becoming popular.

Why clients need a content moderation agency

A content moderation agency functions like an outsourced service. The one difference is that it specializes in — you guessed it — content moderation. It is an outsourced service provider that screens, qualifies, and continually trains skilled online content moderators to help clients and brands navigate through this dark maze of social media monitoring. That’s why it has also been identified with social media management services. It frees the client up from doing the service in-house and thus giving them more time to focus on their core business. And because sometimes the content that goes online can be dark and disturbing, these social media moderation companies also save the executives a lot of heartache and sleepless nights.

In a sense, the content moderation agency acts as a project manager for the content moderators they deploy to their respective clients. It picks the right content moderator for the right brand. Some client companies might have more posts coming in, while others have less. Some might have more controversial content because of the nature of their products and/or services, such as oil and alcohol. Others, on the other hand, might be relatively safe and even family-friendly, such as toy companies. The content moderation agency project manager has to make sure that the content moderator and the brand he is servicing must be compatible. This just might take more than skill but can also be influenced by behavior, personality, and preferences.

Choosing your content moderator

Let’s go back to the toy company brand. The content moderation agency has to choose which operator to assign to it: a twentysomething lady who is more into food and fashion, or a thirtysomething mom who is taking care of two kids. Given that skills and experience of both ladies are equal, would it not make more sense to assign the remote working mom to the toy company brand? That’s what moderation companies do: they act as a matchmaker between the company and the content moderator, in order to deliver optimum results.

A content moderation agency also monitors all its remote workers to see to it that the job gets done. It ferries questions from the clients and works with them to set guidelines that can protect and promote the brand. It monitors the progress of the social media monitoring and assists its moderators should the need arise. If you are looking for a content moderation agency to help you with your social media accounts, call us at HOPLA now.