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Facebook not protecting content moderators from mental trauma: lawsuit

Facebook not protecting content moderators from mental trauma: lawsuit

Facebook

Social media giant and already under scanner for various reasons, Facebook has been faced with another lawsuit filed by its own employee alleging that content moderators who face mental trauma after reviewing distressing images on the platform are not being properly protected by the company.

According to the filed lawsuit, Facebook moderators under contract are "bombarded" with "thousands of videos, images and live-streamed broadcasts of child sexual abuse, rape, torture, bestiality, beheadings, suicide and murder" and alleges negligence and failure to maintain a safe workplace.

"Facebook is ignoring its duty to provide a safe workplace and instead creating a revolving door of contractors who are irreparably traumatized by what they witnessed on the job," Korey Nelson, a lawyer for former Facebook contract employee Selena Scola, said in a statement on Monday.

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According to report, the lawyer of the plaintiff has asked Facebook in the lawsuit to set up a medical monitoring fund to provide testing and care to content moderators with PTSD and also take care of the people that have already been traumatized.

Nelson's firm is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.

Scola worked at Facebook's offices in Menlo Park and Mountain View, California, for nine months from June last year, under a contract through Pro Unlimited Inc, a Florida-based staffing company.

The case is Scola v Facebook Inc and Pro Unlimited Inc, No. 18 CIV0513, filed in Superior Court of the State of California.

(With inputs from agencies)