Facebook not protecting content moderators from mental trauma: lawsuit

(Reuters) - A former Facebook contract employee has lodged a suit against the company, alleging that content moderators who face mental trauma after reviewing distressing images on the platform are not being properly protected by the social networking giant.

FILE PHOTO - The Facebook application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White

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 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“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.

Nelson’s firm is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.

Scola worked at Facebook’s offices in Menlo Park and Mountain View, California, for nine months from June last year, under a contract through Pro Unlimited Inc, a Florida-based staffing company.

The case is Scola v Facebook Inc and Pro Unlimited Inc, No. 18 CIV0513, filed in Superior Court of the State of California.

Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru

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