The image is by Alex Castro.
A former content moderation for TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the platform, saying that ByteDance provides inadequate safeguards to protect their mental health against a constant onslaught of traumatic footage.
In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in the California Central District Court, Candie Frazier says she spent 12 hours a day moderating videos uploaded to TikTok for a third-party contracting firm named Telus International. In that time, she witnessed many acts of extreme and graphic violence, including mass shootings, child rape, animal sacrifice, cannibalism, gang murder, and genocide.
In order to deal with the huge amount of content uploaded to TikTok daily, she and her fellow moderators had to watch between three and ten videos simultaneously, with new videos loaded in at least every 25 seconds. In the first four hours of their shift, the Moderators are only allowed to take one 15 minute break. The lawsuit says ByteDance monitors performance closely and punishes any time taken away from watching graphic videos.
The lawsuit claims that TikTok did not meet industry standards for moderation.
According to the lawsuit, TikTok and its partners have failed to meet industry-recognized standards intended to mitigate the harms of content moderation. Technical safeguards like blurring or reducing the resolution of videos under review are included.
As a result of her work, she has suffered severe psychological trauma including depression and symptoms associated with anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. When she does sleep, she has horrible nightmares. She tries to go to sleep by replaying videos she has seen in her mind. She has a lot of panic attacks.
The testimony in the lawsuit fits with reports of content moderators working for other tech companies. Over the past few years, the terrible working conditions facing these moderators, a labor force that is absolutely crucial in maintaining the profitability of some of the world's biggest companies, has become increasingly scrutinized. Despite the extra attention, the working conditions for moderators are still very challenging.
The Joseph Saveri Law Firm filed a similar lawsuit against Facebook in the fall of 2018, accusing them of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. The case resulted in a settlement for Facebook. If we hear back from ByteDance, we will update this story.
