Facebook will pay millions to content moderators who suffer PTSD at work
SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook has agreed to pay $52 million to thousands of U.S. workers who suffer the psychological consequences of reviewing posts depicting acts of suicide, homicide, child abuse, and other disturbing content, lawyers for the workers said Tuesday.
The class action settlement, in which Facebook did not admit or deny harms caused to these workers, is the first of its kind, the lawyers said, and applies to any content moderator who has ever worked for a third-party company providing services to Facebook and its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram, a group that includes thousands of people.
"I am incredibly proud of the plaintiffs in this case, who put themselves in jeopardy in coming forward," said Steve Williams, a partner at the Joseph Saveri Law Firm in San Francisco, one of several firms involved in the case. "No one had ever seen a case like this, and the jobs that people do were in some ways beyond description."
"We are grateful to the people who do this important work to make Facebook a safe environment for everyone. We're committed to providing them additional support through this settlement and in the future," Facebook spokesman Drew Pusateri said in an emailed statement.
In September 2018, former Facebook moderator Selena Scola broke a confidentiality agreement and sued Facebook, alleging that she developed PTSD after working at a job reviewing disturbing content including rape, homicide and animal cruelty. The complaint argued that Facebook failed to provide a safe workplace or compensate them for the psychological harms that they endured.
The Verge first reported the settlement.