Behind the For You - Content Moderators under TikTok’s Control
TikTok’s deliberate management strategies to maximize productivity at the cost of workers‘ well-being: a relentless metrics system, constant competition among colleagues, and a lack of career prospects.
by Lúcio, anonymous content moderator
Cite this work as:
Lúcio. 2026. “Behind the For You – Content Moderators under TikTok’s Control”. [“Por trás da for you: O dia a dia do moderador de conteúdo sob o controle do TikTok”]. In: M. Miceli, A. Dinika, K. Kauffman, C. Salim Wagner, and L. Sachenbacher (eds.) Data Workers‘ Inquiry. Creative Commons BY 4.0. https://data-workers.org/lucio/
This piece can be used, shared, and adapted with proper attribution.
This text was born from my experience as a content moderator, from over four years of living the regimented, stressful routine, permeated by the constant control that big tech companies maintain over moderation teams. This account exposes the relentless metrics system, the constant competition among colleagues, and the lack of career prospects. Beyond warning about the true human costs behind the curation of what you see on your For You Page, my goal is to make clear to those who already know and live the reality of this field that our experiences and pains are rarely unique.
My initial idea for this project was to shed light on the backstage of TikTok content moderation: my routine and that of my colleagues. However, the more the analysis that underpins this text and dialogue with members of the Data Workers’ Inquiry evolved, the more I realized it wasn’t about unique patterns. It wasn’t something exclusive to TikTok, nor something exclusive to ByteDance. It was something systemic across technology companies and content moderation.
The process of constructing this text, my auto-ethnographic observations, conversations with colleagues, and reflection brought me new ideas about what I wanted to convey to readers, particularly my fellow moderators: that we are not alone
That even when these companies try to pit us against each other—encouraging us to blame leaders, other departments, or people at our own level—it serves to divert focus from the real problems of the companies and this field as a whole. My analysis focuses on the strategies and choices of the companies, which build a system of supervision and management to extract ever more productivity from their employees at the cost of their health and well-being.
Moderation can be tiring and exhausting, physically and psychologically, a job one does alone. But it doesn’t have to be lonely. There needs to be unity as a class, not minor conflicts among ourselves. I hope this text reaches you and that you feel embraced in this way. We are not alone.
About the Author
Lúcio
I have been a content moderator for four years. Like many others, I entered this world during the pandemic and, since then, have worked both for outsourcing companies (BPOs) and at ByteDance. I lived through the end of remote work, phases of team expansion, and many waves of layoffs. I write under a pseudonym, Lúcio, to protect my safety.