Hellooo, and welcome to Season 10 of Mads World! You're about to listen to Behind The Swipe: Dating App Moderation with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism's Niamh McIntyre!

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This week I am joined by Big Tech reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), Niamh McIntyre! In her work with TBIJ, she investigates powerful technology companies and has published stories on TikTok's overworked and traumatized content moderators, organized crime gangs running crypto scams, and Amazon’s sprawling surveillance systems. Before joining TBIJ, she was a data journalist at the Guardian for four years. Her most recent article for Wired explores the dating app content moderators who are struggling to keep platforms safe for users, due to the challenges faced on dating apps such as Bumble, Grindr, and Hinge. The piece sheds light on the psychological toll of their work, with moderators exposed to explicit and harmful content, including instances of harassment, violence, and other illegal activity. The job involves making rapid decisions on flagged content, often leading to emotional distress and trauma for the moderators. In this episode, we discuss her investigation including the working conditions of moderators in the online dating industry, the challenges they face, how handling sensitive content is approached, mental health, improving working conditions for moderators, and future developments on the horizon.

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Cover Art: Veredien

Music: The.Jones.Project_93