Quote:A 17-page document given to staff at online moderator oDesk tells them to delete ‘obvious sexual activity, even if naked parts are hidden from view’, a former worker has revealed.
But guidelines give the go-ahead to ‘deep flesh wounds’, ‘excessive blood’ and ‘crushed heads, limbs, etc – as long as no insides are showing’.
The rules are used by oDesk to scrutinise photographs, text and videos that have been flagged by one of  Facebook’s 850million users.
The former employee passed the guidelines to US website Gawker  after claiming he received a ‘humiliating’ 63p ($1) per hour for screening photographs.
In it, staff are told images of ‘urine, faeces, vomit, semen and ear wax’ are eXx1l3d but images of ‘snot’ are  allowed – as are ‘cartoon faeces, urine and spit’.
Depictions of illegal drug taking should also be deleted but marijuana is OK as long as it does not depict selling, buying or growing, moderators are told.
And although racist comments of any kind are to be eXx1l3d, ‘humour overrules hate speech, unless slurs are used or humour is not evident’.
Facebook said third party companies, with staff often based in developing countries, were hired to provide quick ‘precursory classification’ for the millions of reports it receives  every day.
A spokesman said: ‘These contractors are subject to rigorous quality controls and wee have implemented several layers of safeguards to protect the data of those using our service.’