In September 2018, Selena Scola sued Facebook alleging that she would have developed post-traumatic stress as a result of exercising her duties as a content moderator, since the position subjects workers to viewing photographs of rape, murder and suicide. Scola developed the first symptoms nine months after taking office. Based on this context, the complainant party further claimed that the technological giant failed to provide a safe workplace for employees who performed this function.
As a result of some complaints, a company hired by Facebook to moderate content even ended up providing services in this business area.
As part of the agreement reached, Facebook is also committed to making some changes to the content moderation tools it currently uses, in order to reduce the potential impact of the most harmful images and videos. Moderators will also be able to have individual coaching sessions with a mental health professional once a week. Monthly, there will also be group therapy sessions.
Another change is the addition of emotional resilience criteria to the recruitment process.
The preliminary agreement covers moderators from the states of California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. Workers will now have the right to comment on the proposal and request changes before the final approval by the panel, which should take place before the end of the year.
