UGC Moderation Pipeline Build Blueprint

One-page reference for engineering a UGC video moderation pipeline at 100,000 videos a day: the cheapest-check-first / log-and-report two-rule spine, the five-stage funnel architecture (hash matching, cheap classifiers, VLM context review, human queue, governance floor), the build-vs-buy verdict per component, the 2026 tool field with prices for hash systems, classifier APIs and VLMs, the funnel cost model against the naive per-minute baseline, the per-harm-class threshold strategy with its three failure regions, the five-milestone build order, and the three governance pillars (mandatory reporting, transparency and minors, reviewer wellbeing).