The content that social media moderators, like Facebook moderators, must view on a daily basis can be extremely disturbing and lead to some psychological damage, .
Recently there have been Facebook Moderator compensation claims initiated in a number of different jurisdictions, including the United States and Ireland, in relation to the suffering that moderators experienced due to the nature of the content that they viewed and the work targets that they were set.
What is a Facebook Moderator Injury?
Facebook Moderators are expected to filter through thousands of hours of videos and pictures so that they can delete content that is not appropriate for sharing publicly on the social media platform.
A high level of accuracy, approximately 98%, is expected to be achieved as part of this position and a moderator’s job could be on the line if their level of output is not deemed acceptable by their supervisors. Due to this there is a lot of time pressure associated with the position. There have been complaints registered that moderators were unable to sleep due to the pressure they felt at having to achieve these goals.
There is also a huge potential for significant psychological trauma to be experienced. In some of the legal actions alaready initiated the moderators have reference animaly cruely, murder, racially motivated violaned and child abuse among some of the disturbing content they have witnessed. Viewing material such as this can lead to a lot of side effects include depression, violent mood swings and anti-social behaviour.
Adequate training and counselling should be available to content moderators to allow them to deal with the material that they must view. Additionally there should be a clear line of command, that is straightforward to communicate with, so moderators can voice any concerns that they may have in relation to their work targets.
Who do you take a Facebook Moderator Claim against?
In the vast majority of cases Facebook moderators are employed by an external company that has a contract in place with Facebook to provide the moderation services. If this is the case then any legal action could be taken against either, or both, entities. The legal action will determine which body was responsible for failing to act or provide a service which resulted in a negative impact for the employee.
Your solicitor will inform you in relation to the best course of action for you to take against these entities.
Making Claims for Facebook Moderation Trauma
It is always in you best interests to speak to an experienced solicitor in relation to making a claim in relation to the trauma that you suffered in a workplace environment. They will be able to advise you in relation to the most appropriate course of action to take in relation to the Facebook moderator trauma that you were impacted by.
It is important for you to contact a solicitor as soon as possible so they can prepare case for you. Don’t forget that there are many others in the same position as you so there may be a number of claims to manage.