With the recent submission of a number of Facebook Moderator compensation claims in the United States and Ireland, the suffering that these content moderators go through has come into sharp focus.
The disturbing nature of the content that they must view and the difficult-to-reach work targets that they are set have been exposed in many different news reports and interviews. In a bid to stem the tide one of the major agencies providing Facebook with content moderators, Accenture, has attempted to stem the tide of these compensation claims by issuing disclosure agreements to new and existing social media moderators.Due to this it is important to look into what are the specific injuries and who is a claim submitted against?
What is referred to as a Facebook moderator injury?
Facebook Moderators are must syphon through thousands of hours of video footage and images in order to remove inappropriate content which is against the platforms terms and conditions for publication. Along with this there is pressure to maintain a high level of accuracy, reported to be around 98%. If this level is maintained then a moderator’s position could be taken away from them if their supervisors are unhappy with their work. Many social media content moderators has reported that they were experienced difficulty sleeping as a result of this pressure.
There is a very good chance that content moderators could suffer from long term psychological trauma. In the compensation claims initiated to date a number of the moderators have referred to viewing animal cruelty, murders, hate and race-related violence and child abuse. Psychologists confirm that looking at material like this can result in a lot of side effects including depression, violent mood swings and anti-social behaviour.
It is very important to incorporate sufficient training and counselling for social media content moderators so they can handle the work duties that they must view. This should be accompanied by a clear line of hierarchical management which is open to moderators voicing their concerns at their working conditions.
H2: Who do you take a Facebook Moderator Claim against?
Most of these compensation cases submitted by Facebook moderators are taken against the agency that is hiring them to to complete the tasks on behalf of Facebook. As they are carrying out duties set out by Facebook and have a contract with the agency then the most likely course of action is to take the legal action against both groups. During the ensuing legal action a ruling regarding the amount of liability both entities are responsible for.
Facebook Moderation Trauma Compensation
The wisest thing to do is to speak with an experienced solicitor so you have the best possible chance of being successful with you legal action. This is additionally important as solicitors familiar with cases like this are sure to be managing more than one case so a group action may be possible.