2000 jobs lost in Barcelona as Facebook and Instagram reduce moderator workforce

In January, Meta announced it would relax its content moderation policies on Facebook and Instagram. This decision will cost over 2000 people their jobs, according to Spanish unions. These employees work for Telus, a Canadian company contracted by Meta to monitor posts in multiple languages in Barcelona.

Last month, it was revealed that Meta would no longer use Telus's services. In Barcelona, moderators review posts in Dutch, Spanish, Catalan, French, Portuguese, and Hebrew. The exact number of Dutch-language moderators remaining is unclear, and Meta has not responded to inquiries from NOS.

Meta's changes in content moderation are unclear, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in January that the company would stop collaborating with fact-checkers in the U.S. Restrictions on topics like immigration and gender were also eased, influenced by the U.S. election results. Meta later announced similar relaxations in the EU, submitting a risk analysis to the European Commission.