We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

I had We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets on my reading wishlist for a while. I finally read the hardback edition earlier this month. This novella is a quick read at 138 pages. I wasn't sure what I was expecting with this novella when I first started reading it. However, it most definitely packs a punch and sends a powerful message about the plight of employees who work in stressful environments.

We Had to Remove This Post highlights the impact of social media in general and the working conditions of social media content moderators, which I think is an important topic to examine for a novella. 

The employees in We Had to Remove This Post watch videos during their shifts at a company called Hexa. During their shifts, employees decide whether the videos they watch are allowed to be posted online or are taken down due to the videos content. 

The employees see some pretty horrific things while watching these videos. Over time, the employees seem to be effected by post-traumatic stress disorder due to watching videos during their shifts. Some of the employees turn to alcohol and drug use/consumption to cope, deal with insomnia due to watching these videos, and display other disturbing behaviors.

We Had To Remove This Post is told through the point of view of Kayleigh. Kayleigh works at Hexa and so does her girlfriend, Sigrid. The focus is on Kayleigh's time at Hexa, how working at Hexa effects her negatively, how the work effects Sigrid and their relationship, and the effects on other employees too.

I think the author does a fantastic job describing the horrors of being a moderator for such a social media company! I cannot imagine watching horrific video after video after video for hour after hour after hour over weeks and months. It must wreak havoc on the psyche.

As much as the author does a fabulous job in describing the horrors of being a social media content moderator, it was all too much. Plus, parts of this novella were boring and felt disjointed. Maybe this is because We Had to Remove This Post is a translated work?

Below is the publisher's summary for We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets from Amazon's website:

Kayleigh needs money. That’s why she takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform whose name she isn’t allowed to mention. Her job: reviewing offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and deciding which need to be removed. It’s grueling work. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend all day watching horrors and hate on their screens, evaluating them with the platform’s ever-changing terms of service while a supervisor sits behind them, timing and scoring their assessments. Yet Kayleigh finds a group of friends, even a new love—and, somehow, the job starts to feel okay.

But when her colleagues begin to break down; when Sigrid, her new girlfriend, grows increasingly distant and fragile; when her friends start espousing the very conspiracy theories they’re meant to be evaluating; Kayleigh begins to wonder if the job may be too much for them. She’s still totally fine, though—or is she?

I am giving We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets a rating of 2 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!