Dark Side of Corporate Responsibility: Content Moderation as Emotional Dirty Work in the Digital Age
Name of applicant
Tanusree Jain
Title
Associate Professor
Institution
Copenhagen Business School
Amount
DKK 6,979,459
Year
2024
Type of grant
Semper Ardens: Accelerate
What?
This project will investigate and uncover how, in what forms, and through which mechanisms dirt manifests in content moderation work. In this manner, it will explore governance modalities to enable human-centred oversight of organizations in the platform economy.
Why?
Corporate social responsibility of content moderation has negative spillover effects on employees. On one hand, it exposes a new form of emotional dirt in virtual work. On the other hand, it encapsulates a governance challenge pertaining to the dark side of CSR. This project is an opportunity to break new ground in the governance of corporate responsibility.
How?
Based on rich in-depth interviews with content moderators and governance actors in Platform companies in Europe, this project will involve a micro-process analysis to flesh out emotional dirt in content moderation work and identify governance challenges pertaining to contemporary digital work.