we had to remove this post hanna bervoets

But even though much remains ambivalent until the very end, one thing is clear throughout: Bervoets’ novel is brilliant, and as accessible as it is confrontational. Her task: review offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and decide which need to be removed. So she takes a job working for a social media platform whose name she isn’t allowed to mention. Some information is disclosed on the first page, while other parts of the story don’t become clear until the very end.Ĭontroversial questions about how people become numbed to violence in modern society, and about timeless human weaknesses, are combined with perfectly calibrated doses of emotion in a way that is reminiscent of Ian McEwan. To be a content moderator is to see humanity at its worstbut Kayleigh needs money. Sometimes the pieces of the puzzle are fairly straightforward, at other times there is more ambivalence. How exactly this relationship failed, what the lawsuit is about, and who is guilty of what – all is revealed bit by bit. Kayleigh also looks back at a failed relationship. PRAISE FOR WE HAD TO REMOVE THIS POST The dank underside of social media, its cruelty and delusions, have become, our shared affliction. She isn’t the only one traumatised by the work: a group of former employees are suing the platform for severe psychological trauma. We Had To Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets is a chilling, powerful and urgent story about what - or who - determines how we see the world. She is part of a team who review offensive videos and decide, following guidelines, what may or may not be left online. This is ironic given that We Had to Remove This Post is exactly the kind of wannabe-conversation-starter book that tackles topical & important issues.

In We Had to Remove This Post, 27-year-old Kayleigh, recounts her time as a content moderator for a large online platform.

We had to remove this post hanna bervoets