Facebook Is Not Protecting Content Moderators From Mental Trauma, Lawsuit Claims (reuters.com)

A former Facebook contract employee has filed a lawsuit, 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. Reuters reports: 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. "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, a lawyer for former Facebook contract employee Selena Scola, said in a statement on Monday. Facebook in the past has said all of its content reviewers have access to mental health resources, including trained professionals onsite for both individual and group counseling, and they receive full health care benefits. More than 7,500 content reviewers work for Facebook, including full-time employees and contractors. Facebook's director of corporate communications, Bertie Thomson, said in response to the allegations: "We take the support of our content moderators incredibly seriously, [...] ensuring that every person reviewing Facebook content is offered psychological support and wellness resources."

Comments

Looks like time for the B Team

[Mal-2]

It looks like it's time to call in a relief crew and let them get a rest. Call in the B Team -- or the /b/ team, rather.

You get all the best talent when they do it for free.

You can't unsee.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've read that for the police officers who work combating child porn, there's stuff you can't unsee.

People who have to deal with that to keep the rest of us from seeing it should have reasonable resources and therapy available to deal with it. I'm not talking carte blanche, but something serious if they need it. Just because you can find someone to work a job without that support doesn't mean it's okay to mess people up for doing their job. You can find people to work a sawmill even if you don't give them health insurance if they cut off your hand, but it's still not okay.

Re:You can't unsee.

[Ksevio]

But sometimes that's the point - like people posting videos of the victims of Mexican drug cartels who are doing it because the government is trying to hide that it happens and ignore the problem. Notifying law enforcement isn't going to do anything

Re:The new America.

[Gravis Zero]

A country of weaklings. If you don't think you can handle that shit (and I'm sure it is horrible) don't take the fucking job. Butch the fuck up.

And what if you do think you can handle it but end up with PTSD? Yes, it can cause PTSD. Also, how does your perspective align with soldiers? Are you going to tell the one's that saw their friends blown to pieces that they should "Butch the fuck up" when they are having a flashback?

I for one would love to draft all the ACs like you into the being content moderators until you squeal at the very sight of a webpage loading.

*Imagines the job qualifications and interview*

[wierd_w]

Given that it is impossible to do what this disgruntled worker demands (which is to pre-filter the offensive content, that THEY are hired to filter!!), what I see happening instead is the addition of new job requirements...

Applicant for this position must have demonstrated a complete lack of empathy or emotional reaction to offensive media, and must be able to endure hours of review in the detection, flagging, and removal process of such media. Items that the applicant must have dulled reactions to include but are not limited to, deep fake pornography, child abuse, including sexual exploitation of children, animal abuse, including sexual exploitation of animals, and offensive political rhetoric.

Applicants are expected to work overtime as instructed by supervisors to meet platform quality standards at corporate mandated deadlines, including weekdays and holidays, as required.

So, Mr Smith. I assume that you have reviewed and agreed to our initial screening waiver while we administer the 4CHAN-Reddit test battery to determine your candidacy for this position-- are you ready to proceed?

Excellent! This equipment will measure your emotional responses to the images and other content in this test battery, which have been selected at random from some of the most infamous place on the internet, and which represent a sampling of the worst kind of content humans are able to produce. The test will last 30 minutes, after which, we will review your data and inform you if you have made our candidate list.

(Begin horror scene from A Clockwork Orange)

-----

You know, that kind of thing.

Re:*Imagines the job qualifications and interview*

[AmiMoJo]

There are ways to limit the harm that this sort of work can do. Military orgs around the world have been studying it for decades, to try to prevent their soldiers getting PTSD and becoming ineffective. They have also been studying how to make it worse, as a tactic to use against the enemy.

One example would be limiting exposure. Rather than doing this for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week they might get only be assigned half an hour a day, with the option to continue for up to say two hours if they feel they are okay to do that. The limited exposure and granting of some control over the process really helps psychologically.

Of course the problem for Facebook is that they don't have enough staff already, and reducing them all from 37.5 hours/week to 2.5-10 will mean they have to hire a huge number more and either make the part time or find them other work to do in the mean time.

Re:The new America.

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet that facebook moderators only rarely see a truly grisly image. (Those posting child porn or mob killings tend to do it in less public forums than facebook.). 99% is acceptable pictures - tons and tons of really boring stuff from the lives of people.

And occationally, there is an exposed tit that somehow isn't acceptable to Americans, and therefore has to be deleted. Even if it is posted in a Russian-language art pictures group local to Vladivostok.

Also, the occational troll who toss some plain porn into discussions. Not exactly horrible to reject either.

But still - if they want less "horrible pictures", use their power to ban people. Don't just delete the picture, delete the user & blacklist him. E.g. lock someone out of facebook a month for porn, or for life for an IS beheading. As for fake accounts - no need to have them. Account validated by official ID or it gets closed.

I can believe it

[Millennium]

Law enforcement officers who work on child-pornography cases have their own specialized therapists. There's even a name for the stuff they face: Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder (STSD), brought on by repeatedly witnessing events that traumatize people.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if many Facebook mods needed this same kind of treatment, given the stuff they have to deal with. Hell; some Slashdot mods could probably use it.

Re:The new America.

[LynnwoodRooster]

Well, HALF of America believes we shouldn't need an ID for voting, and a large minority of the other half doesn't want to appear "racist" so they go along with them... Buying alcohol, getting a job, driving, going to school, paying taxes, flying in an airplane, getting a bank account - all require an ID and that isn't racist at all. But somehow requiring an ID to prove who are when you vote is "racist".

Re:And how do these people want to do it?

[swb]

I think there's a whole weird world of Facebook that ordinary people who have friend lists that mostly mirror their real lives never see.

My guess is its comprised of people making low-end money pushing scams and social-media-as-a-career, various swaths of low-income populations, bored and lonely shut-ins who will friend/like anything and have zero privacy settings, and then the truly weird and crazy bottom end of the population.

Plus, it's an international system. You can participate in high weirdness outside your geography.

I've been in lots of bars, but I've never seen a bar fight, gang rape or other type of horrible thing in a bar. I think it mostly just means I don't associate with those kinds of people or go to those kinds of bars, not that they don't exist.

Re:low levels of moderation

[king neckbeard]

You can be completely unaffected by an image and still understand the image meets a classification of not being acceptable.