Through LinkedIn, Asif landed a job as a content moderator at Bigo Live. “I didn’t think much of it at the time, because I just wanted a job,” he told Rest of World, requesting a pseudonym because he feared reprisal for breaking a nondisclosure agreement with his employer.

But the stopgap job has now become his career — one he never wanted, and which he is unable to exit despite attempts.

“Everyone who works in this field is there because they have no choice. It’s something you end up in, and then you are just stuck,” said Asif, who moved to Malaysia in April 2023 to work at Accenture, TikTok’s content moderation contractor in South Asia. “No one wants to be a content moderator forever.”

Read more:

Siddiqui, Z. (2024, February 15). They wanted careers in tech. They’re stuck as TikTok moderators. Rest of World. https://restofworld.org/2024/content-moderators-jobs-pakistan/