Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Former Facebook Content Moderator Files Lawsuit, Says Images She Witnessed Gave Her PTSD
Reuters: Facebook Not Protecting Content Moderators From Mental Trauma: Lawsuit
A former Facebook Inc contract employee filed a lawsuit in California, alleging that content moderators who face mental trauma after reviewing distressing images on the platform are not being properly protected by the social networking company. Facebook moderators under contract are "bombarded" with "thousands of videos, images and livestreamed broadcasts of child sexual abuse, rape, torture, bestiality, beheadings, suicide and murder," the lawsuit said. (Vengattil and Babu, 9/24)
The Washington Post: A Content Moderator Says She Got PTSD While Reviewing Images Posted On Facebook
The suit by former moderator Selena Scola, who worked at Facebook from June 2017 until March, alleges that she witnessed thousands of acts of extreme and graphic violence “from her cubicle in Facebook’s Silicon Valley offices,” where Scola was charged with enforcing the social network’s extensive rules prohibiting certain types of content on its systems. Scola, who worked at Facebook through a third-party contracting company, developed post-traumatic stress disorder “as a result of constant and unmitigated exposure to highly toxic and extremely disturbing images at the workplace,” the suit says. (Dwoskin, 9/24)
Los Angeles Times: Former Content Moderator Files Lawsuit Against Facebook, Claims The Job Gave Her PTSD
“Facebook is ignoring its duty to provide a safe workplace and instead creating a revolving door of contractors who are irreparably traumatized by what they witnessed on the job,” Korey Nelson, an attorney with Burns Charest LLP, said in a statement. The firm is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit. ...Facebook and other internet service providers voluntarily established industry standards for training, counseling and supporting content moderators more than a decade ago, attorneys said. The lawsuit claims Facebook does not follow the workplace safety guidelines it helped create. (Parvini, 9/24)
