Sarah T. Roberts (born September 2, 1975) is a professor, author, and scholar who specializes in content moderation of social media. She is an expert in internet culture, social media, digital labor, and the intersections of media and technology. Roberts coined the term "commercial content moderation" (CCM) to describe the job paid content moderators do to regulate legal guidelines and standards. She wrote the book Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media.
Roberts is an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she co-directs the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2) with Safiya Noble. Her research has raised public awareness about the hidden labor behind social media platforms, and her work has been featured in outlets such as Wired, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and The New York Times.
Early life and education
Roberts grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and attended Madison West High School. In 1997, she received a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she double-majored in French and Spanish language and literature, and earned a certificate in Women's Studies. In 2007, she completed an M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's iSchool. In 2014, Roberts earned a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, with a dissertation titled Behind the Screen: The Hidden Digital Labor of Commercial Content Moderation, directed by Linda C. Smith.
Career
From 2013 to 2016, Roberts was an assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario's Faculty of Information & Media Studies. In 2016, she joined the University of California, Los Angeles's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies as an assistant professor. She was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in 2020.
Roberts' research focuses on commercial content moderation (CCM), the information work and workers, and the social, economic, and political impact of widespread internet adoption. Her work has been instrumental in bringing attention to the conditions of content moderators, who often face psychological and emotional challenges. As part of her work, she consulted on the 2018 documentary The Cleaners, which examined the lives of content moderators.
In 2019, Roberts' book Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media was published by Yale University Press. It is the first book-length ethnographic study of commercial content moderators. The book received positive reviews, including from the Los Angeles Review of Books. Along with Safiya Noble, Roberts co-directs the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2) at UCLA. In 2019, she was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further her research on CCM.
Awards and recognition
Roberts has received several awards for her contributions to understanding digital labor and content moderation. In 2009, she was a Google Policy Fellow at the American Library Association in Washington, D.C. In 2018, she received the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Award for her groundbreaking research on content moderation. That same year, she was named a Carnegie Fellow.
Selected works and publications
Roberts has authored and co-authored numerous works that have shaped the field of internet studies. Her dissertation (2014) laid the foundation for her later book. She has contributed chapters to edited volumes, including The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Class and Culture Online (2016) and Pics or It Didn't Happen: Images Banned from Instagram (2016). Her articles have appeared in journals such as Library Trends, Wi: Journal of Mobile Media, and First Monday. She has also written for popular outlets like The Atlantic, Maclean's, and Slate.
Documentary involvement
Roberts was involved in the 2022 documentary Backlash: Misogyny in the Digital Age (French: Je vous salue salope: la misogynie au temps du numérique), directed by Léa Clermont-Dion and Guylaine Maroist. The film explores online misogyny and its impact, building on Roberts' expertise in digital culture and moderation.
Impact and legacy
Roberts' coinage of "commercial content moderation" has become a standard term in academic and industry discussions. Her research has highlighted the often invisible labor of moderators, who are tasked with enforcing platform policies on a daily basis. By bringing attention to the psychological toll and ethical implications of this work, Roberts has influenced debates about artificial intelligence and automation in content moderation, as well as the responsibilities of social media companies.
External links
- Official website
- Sarah Roberts at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies