TikTok content moderator sues over ‘mental health’ damage — Analysis
TikTok has sued a content moderator, alleging it failed to provide mental protection while she was subject to graphic video clips including murder, suicide and cannibalism.
Candie Frazier – who allegedly worked 12 hours a day monitoring TikTok videos for the contracting company Telus International – filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance claiming she now “has trouble sleeping”And that “when she does sleep, she has horrific nightmares”Due to disturbing videos.
Bloomberg reports that Frazier saw clips from the following videos at work: “freakish cannibalism, crushed heads, school shootings, suicides, and even a fatal fall from a building, complete with audio.”
“Due to the sheer volume of content, content moderators are permitted no more than 25 seconds per video, and simultaneously view three to ten videos at the same time,”The lawsuit claimed that moderators were not allowed to leave the content without two breaks of 15 minutes and one hour for lunch.
TikTok released a statement saying that the company seeks to “to promote a caring working environment for our employees and contractors.”
“Our safety team partners with third party firms on the critical work of helping to protect the TikTok platform and community, and we continue to expand on a range of wellness services so that moderators feel supported mentally and emotionally,”A spokesperson stated.
It’s not the first time a tech company has been sued for exposing content moderators to graphic content. A former YouTube content moderator filed suit against Google in September alleging that she was left feeling depressed and PTSD from being forced to view videos of suicide, murder, bestiality and torture. Moderator: “chronic understaffing”This meant that she had to view between 100-300 videos within a span of four hours.
It was reported in May that Facebook would pay $52 million for moderators who allegedly suffered from PTSD as a result of their work.
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