Author: Sandra E. Garcia / Source: New York Times
A former content moderator who worked on contract for Facebook has filed a lawsuit against the company saying that being bombarded with thousands of violent images on her computer in Silicon Valley led her to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
The former moderator, Selena Scola, argues that Facebook failed to protect her and other contractors as they viewed distressing videos and photographs of rapes, suicides, beheadings and other killings, according to the complaint, filed on Friday in San Mateo County Superior Court.
Ms. Scola, who worked on behalf of the company for nine months, said in the complaint that her post-traumatic stress disorder was set off “when she touches a computer mouse, enters a cold building, watches violence on television, hears loud noises or is startled.”
Facebook’s 7,500 moderators around the world sift through 10 million potentially rule-breaking posts per week, the lawsuit says.
The company relies on its two billion users to report inappropriate content. The moderators then employ the hundreds of rules Facebook has developed to determine if the content violates its policies.
“We recognize that this work can often be difficult,” Bertie Thomson, the director of corporate communications at Facebook, said in a statement. “That is why we take the support of our content moderators incredibly seriously, starting with their training, the benefits they receive, and ensuring that every person reviewing Facebook content is offered psychological support and wellness resources.”
Ms. Scola is urging Facebook to establish a fund to create a testing…
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