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Upwork Advertises Cheating

4 points by asoskm ↗ HN
It has come to my attention that outsourcing company Upwork permits and even advertises services that promote cheating.

If you go to Google.Co.Uk and google 'law essay writing service' you can see Upwork advertises as an essay writing service yet...at the same time, this violates their policies: Seeking, offering, or endorsing any services that violate the academic policies of any educational institution;

See: https://www.upwork.com/legal/terms-of-use/

This company is so unethical it is disturbing. They are helping to destroy the integrity of academic institutions worldwide.

8 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 32.3 ms ] thread
jerome88
Wow. The levels this company would go to make money. Basically half their site makes money due to someone being left with their IP infringed.
blister
By itself, law essay writing as a service doesn't seem (to me) as a violation of their terms of use. There are a lot of use cases for producing web content/copy for websites, magazines, and the like that have absolutely nothing to do with education.

As an example, would "business plan writing" be a bad service to offer? What if an unscrupulous MBA student paid to have someone write a business plan for a college class?

I think this is mostly a non-issue and it seems like you have a bone to pick with upwork. What's the real story? Why do you hate them?

asoskm
Well, an "essay writing service" is a thinly veiled cheating service. It's intention is to assist students to submit essays they did not right.

Look up the other keywords. It's clear they want to target students.

blister
And that's where I really think you're missing the point. If I needed someone to write copy for my website, I'd search using those same terms (and have in the past).

UpWork is a service that sells workers. You're equating essay with education, which I think is a false correlation. The reason schools pound on essay writing so much is because so many professions require competent writers. I'm an engineer and probably spend 25% of my year writing documents, essays, proposals, blog posts, and website copy. UpWork may be unethical, but Keyword-Targeting Advertisements is not a good indicator of that.

asoskm
Hmm, that's a very narrow, literalist approach. But reading between the lines, it's clear who they're targeting.
dbg31415
It's... Upwork. What did you expect?

It's the flea market of development talent. I'm sure there are a few good folks on there, but for the most part it's a great example on how commodifying technical services is just a race to the bottom.

jerome88
Good point. Upwork loves illegal activities.