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Facebook agrees to pay $52 million settlement for trauma to content reviewers

WION Web Team
New Delhi Updated: May 13, 2020, 08:07 AM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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The agreement submitted to a California state court will include payments to more than 10,000 current and former content moderators who worked for firms contracted by Facebook, the report added.

Facebook reportedly agreed to a $52 million court settlement to compensate content moderators who were required to view contents of the social media giant which caused them mental trauma, news agency AFP reported quoting plaintiff lawyers. 

The content reviewers were asked to review often graphic and violent images as part of their jobs at the firm, 

According to the agreement submitted to a California state court will include payments to more than 10,000 current and former content moderators who worked for firms contracted by Facebook, the report added.

The class-action lawsuit filed in 2018 claimed that the content reviewers were subject to psychological trauma from repeated exposure to graphic content such as child sexual abuse, beheadings, terrorism, animal cruelty, rape and murder.

All of the plaintiffs in the class action will get at least $1,000 and those diagnosed with specific mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder will get additional compensation up to $50,000.

Facebook also agreed to take measures to provide content moderators employed by its contractors in the United States with mental health support and counselling.

"We are so pleased that Facebook worked with us to create an unprecedented program to help people performing work that was unimaginable even a few years ago," plaintiff attorney Steve Williams of the Joseph Saveri Law Firm said in a statement.

"The harm that can be suffered from this work is real and severe. This settlement will provide meaningful relief, and I am so proud to have been part of it."

(With inputs from AFP)