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Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard’s podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
Crime reporting and social media app Citizen has severed its relationship with an outsourcing firm it used to hire workers who were paid less than $2 an hour from countries such as Kenya and Nepal, according to sources and emails obtained by Motherboard. The workers were paid to listen to police radio audio and summarize those events for Citizen users..
The news showcases the paltry wages workers were paid for something that is a key part of Citizen’s app. It also highlights the continued uncertainty of Citizen’s future, as the app has explored how to monetize or further engage its user base, sometimes with disastrous and life-threatening results. Last week, Motherboard reported Citizen had laid off dozens of employees. Those cuts now extend to contract workers too.
Were you just laid off from Citizen? Do you know anything else about the company? We’d love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.
Whereas Citizen previously told Motherboard that laid off Citizen employees received “a generous severance package”, that severance does not extend to the contract workers, multiple sources said. Two sources said workers from CloudFactory, the contracting firm, were paid between $1.50 and $2 an hour.
“That’s what being from a third country means I guess. It wasn’t much but it was more than what we would get here, so it was okay. But again, not enough for the work we used to put in,” one source said. Motherboard provided multiple sources in this story anonymity to protect them from retaliation.
CloudFactory announced the end of its contract with Citizen in an email to workers earlier this month.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the CloudFactory and Citizen partnership will come to an end on Friday 6th January, 2023,” an email sent to CloudFactory workers and obtained by Motherboard reads. “This is because of the current ongoing market conditions over which we have no control.”
One source said “I loved working there and helping thousands of people. It was a smooth run
