Facebook Sued By Former Content Moderator

San Francisco: A former content moderator at Facebook has sued the company alleging that moderators who face mental trauma after reviewing distressing images on the platform are not being properly protected by the social networking giant.

"Ex-contractor Selena Scola has sued Facebook for allegedly 'ignoring its duty' to protect moderators who deal with mental trauma after seeing disturbing imagery.  "Rather than create a safe environment, it's producing a 'revolving door of contractors' who are permanently scarred by what they've seen, Scola's lawyer Korey Nelson said," Engadget reported on Tuesday.

To the lawsuit, moderators at the social media giant under contract are "bombarded" with thousands of videos, images and livestreamed broadcasts of child sexual abuse, rape, torture, bestiality, beheadings, suicide and murder.

The company has said it was "reviewing" the lawsuit and took moderator support "seriously" and pointed to its existing assistance, including "in house" psychological and wellness support.

"We are currently reviewing this claim. We recognise that this work can often be difficult. That is why we take the support of our content moderators incredibly seriously, starting with their training, the benefits they receive, and ensuring that every person reviewing Facebook content is offered psychological support and wellness resources," Facebook was quoted as saying by Engadget.

The social networking giant has maintained that all of its content reviewers have access to mental health resources, including trained professionals onsite for both individual and group counselling and that they receive full health care benefits, according to The Guardian. (IANS)

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