Facebook allegedly caused 'enduring distress' in Kenyan content moderators, according to advocates, with over 140 individuals diagnosed with PTSD.
The assessments were carried out by Dr. Ian Kanyanya, the chief of mental health services at Kenyatta National Hospital situated in Nairobi, Kenya's capital. These assessments were submitted to Nairobi's employment and labor relations court on December 4th, as recorded by the law firm, Nzili and Sumbi Associates. These submissions are part of an ongoing lawsuit against Meta and Samasource Kenya – an external firm hired by Meta to screen content on their platforms.
The lawsuit involves the mental health concerns of content moderators who are employed by third-party firms to filter out disturbing content from tech platforms, usually in developing countries. For years, there have been concerns raised about the impact this work has on moderators' emotional well-being.
Meta has refrained from commenting on the medical reports due to the ongoing litigation, but they maintain their commitment to supporting moderators, stating that their contracts with third-party firms outline provisions for counseling, training, and fair compensation.
To help moderators manage the graphic content they review, Meta enables them to customize their "content review tool," altering the appearance of graphic content by making it blurred or displayed in black and white.
Samasource, now named Sama, did not respond to a request for comment.
According to Kanyanya, the moderators he examined were exposed to "extremely graphic content" daily, including videos of violent murders, self-harm, suicides, attempted suicides, sexual violence, explicit sexual content, child abuse, and violent acts.
Out of the 185 content moderators involved in the dispute, 144 agreed to undergo psychological assessments. Out of this group, 81% were diagnosed with "severe" PTSD, Kanyanya revealed.
The class action lawsuit emerged from a prior claim filed in 2022 by a former Facebook moderator against Samasource Kenya. The employee alleged they were unfairly terminated after organizing protests against the company's working conditions. The UK non-profit organization, Foxglove, is advocating for this case.
All 260 content moderators employed at Samasource Kenya's moderation hub in Nairobi were dismissed in 2022, allegedly as retaliation for raising concerns about their salary and working conditions, according to Foxglove.
The current legal claim pertains to Samasource Kenya's content moderators between 2019 and 2023, court records reveal.
One content moderator's medical records, viewed by CNN, stated that they experienced frequent nightmares related to the graphic content reviewed during their job. This resulted in frequent breakdowns, vivid flashbacks, and paranoia.
Another former content moderator developed a fear of seeing dotted patterns – trypophobia – after encountering an image of maggots crawling out of a decomposing human hand.
Martha Dark, co-executive director of Foxglove, stated that "moderating Facebook is dangerous, even deadly, work that inflicts lifelong PTSD on almost everyone who moderates it."
According to Dark, "In Kenya, it traumatized 100% of hundreds of former moderators tested for PTSD..." She believes that if these diagnoses were made in any other industry, the responsible parties would be required to resign and face legal consequences for violating individuals' rights.
This is not the first time content moderators have pursued legal action against social media giants, claiming that the job caused them trauma.
In 2021, a content moderator sued TikTok after they claimed to have developed psychological trauma as a result of their job. The following year, TikTok faced another lawsuit from former content moderators.
The ongoing lawsuit against Meta and Samasource Kenya is related to the mental health concerns of content moderators, who are often employed by third-party firms for screenings in developing countries.Meta's commitment to supporting moderators includes provisions for counseling, training, and fair compensation in their contracts with third-party firms.
