Meta Cuts Ties With Telus: 2,000 Moderators Laid Off in Spain

Meta ends its contract with Telus in Barcelona, leaving 2,000 content moderators on paid leave amid major shifts in moderation strategy.

Meta Cuts Content Moderation Ties in Spain, Forcing 2,000 Out of Work

In a surprising labor shakeup with global implications, Canadian tech firm Telus International has abruptly sidelined up to 2,000 employees at its Barcelona content moderation center after losing a major contract with Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The workforce reduction underscores sweeping changes underway in how Big Tech handles harmful content—and who is left behind when the algorithms take over.

Sudden Notice, Widespread Impact

On April 4, workers at CCC Barcelona Digital Services, Telus’ local arm in Spain, received an unexpected email notifying them of “gardening leave” effective immediately. The message offered little detail, but labor unions CCOO and UGT quickly confirmed the worst: the company’s client—Meta—had terminated the relationship, leaving one of the largest moderation centers in Europe without its primary business.

According to sources familiar with the matter, including a current and former Telus employee who spoke under the condition of anonymity due to non-disclosure agreements, the Barcelona team was exclusively managing content for Meta. Their responsibilities included screening potentially harmful content in six languages—Catalan, Dutch, French, Hebrew, Portuguese, and Spanish—for Facebook and Instagram.

Meta Quietly Repositions Its Strategy

A Meta spokesperson confirmed the shift, stating that the company had relocated these services to other global centers. “Our commitment to content review remains unchanged,” the spokesperson said, insisting that this move does not indicate a reduction in moderation efforts.

But experts say the transition signals more than just logistical reshuffling.

“Meta has been quietly recalibrating how it handles moderation since early 2024,” said Jennifer Holt, a media policy professor at UC Santa Barbara. “The exit from Barcelona comes on the heels of Meta’s decision to dismantle its U.S. fact-checking program in January and rely more heavily on AI moderation and user-flagged content.”

Indeed, in recent months, Meta has scaled back several human moderation programs, raising concerns about transparency and content oversight.

An Evolving Approach to Digital Safety

Back in 2020, Meta had publicly committed to spending billions on safety and trust infrastructure, hiring thousands of content moderators to manage an overwhelming volume of potentially harmful posts. However, the tide appears to be turning.

In its most recent quarterly report, Meta disclosed a 15% year-over-year reduction in safety-related operational spending, citing “efficiency gains from AI-assisted moderation tools.” The company has also reduced proactive detection of hate speech, opting to intervene only after user reports—drawing criticism from digital rights groups who warn this reactive model risks under-protection in marginalized communities.

“Shifting moderation away from human review introduces blind spots that machines simply can’t catch,” said Fatima Kamara, a senior researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The Barcelona decision is just one of many signals that Meta is leaning into automation over accountability.”

Telus Offers Support, But Workers in Limbo

While Telus said it remains in negotiations with local unions to determine the fate of the laid-off workers, employees were instructed to vacate the Barcelona offices—housed in the city’s iconic Glòries Tower—by midday on Thursday. Though they are currently receiving full pay, they’ve been stripped of their duties and access to work systems, leaving many in a state of anxious uncertainty.

“The way we found out was through an email with no clear information. We were told to go home, and that was it,” said a former employee who worked on the French-language moderation team. “No timeline, no severance plan—just silence.”

Telus stated it will provide “comprehensive support” to affected team members, but union representatives expressed skepticism, citing previous outsourcing decisions by the company.

Global Moderation Network in Flux

Barcelona has long been a strategic hub for digital labor, offering multilingual talent and a favorable regulatory environment. But as Big Tech firms consolidate and shift moderation to lower-cost markets, Spain is losing its grip on this sector.

One Telus employee said moderation work had already started shifting to centers in Colombia, Bulgaria, and Portugal in recent months. However, not all of those locations are directly operated by Telus, raising questions about whether Meta is relying more heavily on third-party vendors with fewer labor protections.

A Telus spokesperson declined to specify how many of its other moderation sites might be affected by the Meta decision but confirmed that the company’s contract with Meta “remains active in other capacities.”

Broader Implications for Content Moderation Jobs

The layoffs in Spain are part of a larger industry trend. According to a 2024 report by Oxford Internet Institute, the number of human content moderators worldwide has declined by 18% over the past year, even as global user content has surged.

“These jobs are emotionally exhausting and often underpaid, yet they are essential for protecting users from online abuse, misinformation, and extremism,” said Maria Gonzalez, a digital labor advocate with Fair Tech International. “Now, many of these workers are being replaced by algorithms that lack the nuance to make ethical decisions.”

The shift also has political ramifications. Several EU lawmakers have raised concerns that companies are sidestepping European labor protections by relocating moderation to less-regulated regions, potentially undermining the bloc’s ambitious Digital Services Act (DSA), which mandates stricter oversight of harmful online content.

A Contentious Path Forward

As Telus and Meta part ways in Spain, questions remain about what ethical moderation looks like in a post-human world. Can AI alone manage the dark corners of the internet? And what happens to the people who were once paid to do so?

For now, thousands of Barcelona-based workers—many of whom moved across borders for these jobs—are left waiting for answers. And their plight serves as a stark reminder: the human cost of digital transformation is still very real.

Source:  (Reuters)

(Disclaimer:  This article is based on publicly available information and expert commentary. The insights reflect developments as of April 2025 and are subject to change as the situation evolves.)

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