Working at Facebook, even as a contractor, was supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime. It was, instead, the most toxic work experience of my life.

As a curator, my job was to choose what links would appear on the Facebook “trending” box on the right side of a user’s newsfeed. Every day, I sifted through hundreds of topics (or “keywords”) that Facebook told me were trending on the platform. Then I’d choose a story about the keyword, and come up with a headline and a short summary that would appear on the trending box.

Most, if not all, of what you’ve read about Facebook’s Trending team in Gizmodo over the past few weeks has been mischaracterized or taken out of context. There is no political bias that I know of and we were never told to suppress conservative news. There is an extraordinary amount of talent on the team, but poor management, coupled with intimidation, favoritism and sexism, has resulted in a deeply uncomfortable work environment. Employees I worked with were angry, depressed and left voiceless – especially women.



One of the first reports Gizmodo published was about the conditions Trending contractors work under. While there is much to be said about this, I was disappointed in the direction the report went. Instead of highlighting the debilitating problems on the team, the report made curators (who are contractors) sound like whiny and privileged millennials. I don’t care that occasionally I didn’t get to go to happy hour. I do care that several allegations of sexism were never taken seriously.

What I found the most destructive was how the team treated women: contrary to what Sheryl Sandberg preaches in her Lean In movement, women on the team are rarely encouraged to speak up.

I often found that when I reported a problem with the Trending tool or a discrepancy in the guidelines, my claims were dismissed. When a man would report the same problem, he would be congratulated for noticing the problem and actions would be taken to fix it. This silencing was devastating. I found myself speaking up less and less, until I got to a point where I no longer reported any problems or errors I encountered.

In one instance, a woman who reported a timecard approval discrepancy to her direct supervisor was told she was wrong without any investigating. The next week several contractors were missing hours from their paychecks – the attitude toward making sure we were paid on time and correctly was very careless. When another woman asked for clarification on guidelines because copy editors were giving her conflicting guidance, she was told to “stop pitting people against one another”.

Of the 15 people who’ve quit since the team’s inception in 2014, 10 were women, including myself

Since 2014, 15 of the approximately 40-50 employees on the trending team have quit. Ten were women, including myself. Those numbers are telling when you consider that curators are paid well (starting salaries are between $55,000-$65,000), at least by most media industry standards, and are provided free meals while at work. This job should theoretically be very appealing, but the turnover rate was always high.



Several women, including myself, reported sexism by managers and editors to their direct supervisor and in their exit interviews to no avail.

While Facebook has been diligent about hiring journalists for editorial insight on the Trending unit, we have no agency and are often held to the whims of engineers, who frequently made changes to the product without telling us.

The team prioritizes scale over editorial quality and forces contractors to work under stressful conditions of meeting aggressive numbers coupled with poor scheduling and miscommunication. If a curator is underperforming, they’ll receive an email from a supervisor comparing their numbers to another curator. There’s also a lot of confusion about the guidelines.

As the Guardian reported in leaked documents: “Facebook relies heavily on just 10 news sources to determine whether a trending news story has editorial authority.” The problem is, even after repeated questions and requests for guidance, no one ever explained what that meant. Much of it was left to interpretation for curators and copy editors. Topics are treated differently depending on who you are working with.

Facebook denies censoring Twitter in Trending topic headlines, or what we call “descriptions”, and the guidelines appear to support this. However, I was specifically trained to avoid using Twitter. Several times curators were penalized for using Twitter in descriptions.

We have no recourse and no HR department to speak to. Compound this with constantly being called out in an internal “Trending feedback group”, where all Facebook employees – many who don’t know the first thing about journalism – can complain about anything we do, while management then shifts the blame down to curators and throws them under the bus.

We constantly have numbers shoved down our throats and aren’t allowed to take lunch breaks. There is a lateness tracker that is used to keep track of when and how late curators are. The document is supposed to be a secret from the team and used to evaluate performance.

We weren’t allowed to post in other Facebook internal groups, weren’t invited to Facebook events, were told to “watch what we say” to people on other teams, and whenever we took time off we received overnight shifts in what felt like punishment.

Saying that I worked at Facebook carried some prestige. I made more money than you’d expect to as a journalist. But none of this negates the toxic environment of the Trending team. I still carry the fear of speaking up with me. I find myself holding back when I see a problem or afraid to speak up when I have an idea.



The one thing that Gizmodo was able to do in pursuing these stories is something that Facebook’s Trending team hasn’t been able to do in over two years: it gave the Trending team’s contractors a voice.

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Ahead of publication, the Guardian contacted Facebook for comment. The company responded with the following statement:

Facebook provides everyone – including contractors – with a respectful and safe working environment. Facebook does not tolerate unlawful harassment or any mistreatment in the workplace or in a work-related situation. We take any allegations of such very seriously, whether from employees or contractors, and investigate every complaint.

If we learn of any vendor who does not enable their employees to take lunch breaks, we would insist the vendor give proper breaks and comply with wage and hour laws. In fact, Facebook has gone well beyond industry norms to define a new standard of treatment for contractors that includes a $15 minimum wage, paid time off and paid parental leave. We are proud of our leadership in defining the experience of our contractors in this way.

We have repeatedly said that Trending Topics is governed by a set of guidelines meant to ensure a high-quality product, consistent with Facebook’s deep commitment to being a platform for people of all viewpoints. Our goal has always been to deliver a valuable experience for the people who use our service. We are investigating reports suggesting that Facebook contractors working on Trending Topics suppressed stories with conservative viewpoints. If we find anything against our principles, we will take additional steps to address it.

There is nothing in our trending algorithm or guidelines that excludes “Twitter” or related terms. Our review team writes the topic descriptions with the aim of accurately describing the real-world event. If the event is being reported on or discussed across multiple media sites, the team tries to accurately reflect the breadth of the conversation.