CW: Objectionable Content
A TikTok moderator has filed a workers' compensation suit in California accusing the company of failing to take steps to protect her mental health as she viewed hours of traumatic videos.
Every day, TikTok users upload millions of videos to its platform. Many of these uploads include graphic and objectionable content including child sexual abuse, rape, torture, bestiality, and murder. The app relies on people like Candie Frazier, the plaintiff who filed suit, to view those videos and remove any that violate the corporation's terms of use in order to maintain a sanitized platform.
Frazier is employed by a third-party contracting firm called Telus International. Frazier claimed in her class-action that TikTok, and parent company ByteDance, controlled her work, and their policies required her to view hundreds of videos during her 12-hour per day shifts.
According to the suit, content moderators are often required to watch between three to 10 videos concurrently, watching only about 25 seconds of each video. Frazier was required to watch "thousands of acts of extreme and graphic violence." Moderators are only allowed to take one hour-long lunch break and two 15-minute breaks per shift.
Despite her employment by a third-party, Frazier claims that ByteDance monitored the moderators' performance, and punished them if any time was "taken away from watching graphic videos." The companies also failed to adhere to industry standards to protect moderators with more frequent breaks, psychological support, or technical safeguards.
According to the lawsuit, Frazier developed and suffers from significant psychological trauma including anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The suit claims that the companies were aware of the negative psychological effects of these videos, but did not implement safety standards to reduce the risk or mitigate the damage suffered by content moderators.
The suit alleges that Frazier also has trouble sleeping, has horrible nightmares when she does fall asleep, and suffers severe and debilitating panic attacks.
The suit requests a jury trial and compensation for content moderators for the psychological injuries they have suffered, and asks the court to compensate content moderators exposed to graphic and objectionable content, to make sure TikTok provides content moderators with mandatory ongoing mental health support to mitigate harm, and to provide mental health screening and treatment to the thousands of moderators affected by the unlawful practices of the companies.
This lawsuit was similar to a class action filed against Facebook in 2018, which was settled in late 2021 for $52 million. That settlement resulted in a potential $50,000 payout to each content moderator involved in the class action.