A former content moderator has filed a complaint against TikTok, alleging that the company is not providing the necessary guarantees for the mental health of its teams.
In her complaint to the California Central District Court, Candie Frazier talks about her difficult working conditions.
TikTok's 10,000 moderators are exposed daily to traumatic videos: child pornography, suicides, rapes, shootings, cannibalism or animal mutilation.
Employees have a maximum of 25 seconds to judge a video.
Some watch multiple clips at once, on screens showing three to ten videos simultaneously.
A frenetic pace of work
On a 12-hour day, the pace is frantic.
In the morning, a single 15-minute break is granted after four hours of work.
The lawsuit says TikTok's parent company is closely monitoring the performance of its moderators and that ByteDance "
heavily punishes
" its employees if they spend too much time on the videos.
The lawsuit also mentions that TikTok does not meet standards aimed at mitigating the harms of content moderation on its employees.
For example, several devices are requested by the staff: more frequent breaks, psychological support and technical guarantees such as blurring or reducing the resolution of the videos being examined.
Mental health repercussions
According to the complaint, Candie Frazier suffered "
severe psychological trauma, including depression, symptoms associated with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder
."
"
The complainant has trouble sleeping and when she sleeps she has horrible nightmares,
" notes the California law firm Joseph Saveri.
He thus claims compensation for the psychological impact and a court order obliging ByteDance to create a medical fund for moderators.
Read alsoHow the TikTok algorithm pushes the filter bubble to the extreme
In 2018, a similar complaint was filed by the same firm against Facebook.
Following this lawsuit, the social network agreed to pay $ 52 million to its moderators as compensation for their mental health problems.
Over 11,000 American "
cleaners
" received at least $ 1,000 each.
Meanwhile, TikTok told
The Verge,
“
While we do not comment on pending litigation, we strive to promote a caring work environment for our employees and contractors.
[...]
We continue to develop a range of wellness services to make moderators feel supported mentally and emotionally.
"
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