https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/24/22852817/tiktok-content-moderation-lawsuit-candie-frazier

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Filed under:

  * Policy
  * Tech
  * Speech and Moderation

TikTok sued by former content moderator for allegedly failing to
protect her mental health

New, 6 comments

The former moderator says she faced a barrage of disturbing footage

By James Vincent Dec 24, 2021, 8:28am EST

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[acastro_20] Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A former content moderator for TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the
platform, alleging that parent company ByteDance provides inadequate
safeguards to protect moderators' mental health against a
near-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, Frazier says she
witnessed "thousands of acts of extreme and graphic violence,"
including mass shootings, child rape, animal mutilation, cannibalism,
gang murder, and genocide.

Frazier says that in order to deal with the huge volume 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. Moderators are only allowed to take one
15 minute break in the first four hours of their shift, and then
additional 15 minute breaks every two hours afterwards. The lawsuit
says ByteDance monitors performance closely and "heavily punishes any
time taken away from watching graphic videos."

`TikTok failed to meet industry standards for content moderation, the
lawsuit claims'

The lawsuit states that TikTok and its partners have failed to meet
industry-recognized standards intended to mitigate the harms of
content moderation. These include offering moderators more frequent
breaks, psychological support, and technical safeguards like blurring
or reducing the resolution of videos under review.

As a result of her work, Frazier says she has suffered "severe
psychological trauma including depression and symptoms associated
with anxiety and PTSD." The lawsuit says Frazier has "trouble
sleeping and when she does sleep, she has horrific nightmares. She
often lays awake at night trying to go to sleep, replaying videos
that she has seen in her mind. She has severe and debilitating panic
attacks."

The testimony in Frazier's lawsuit fits reports of content moderators
working (usually indirectly) for other big tech companies like
Facebook, YouTube, and Google. 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.
Reports like Frazier's, though, suggest that despite the extra
attention, working conditions for moderators are still incredibly
challenging.

Frazeri's lawsuit was filed by California's Joseph Saveri Law Firm,
which previously filed a similar lawsuit in 2018 against moderators
reviewing content for Facebook. That case resulted in a $52 million
settlement paid by Facebook to its content moderators. The Verge has
reached out to ByteDance for comment and will update this story if we
hear back.

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