A Spanish court has ruled that the mental health of a former Facebook moderator was harmed by his work reviewing graphic content such as beheadings, in a case that could have implications for how social media companies work with moderators.
The Barcelona court, upholding a decision by Spain’s social security agency, said the psychiatric treatment the outsourced moderator needed was due to work-related problems, meaning he is entitled to additional sick leave compensation.
The moderator was employed between 2018 and 2020 by CCC Barcelona Digital Services, part of Telus International, which is one of the third-party providers of Meta, the owner of Facebook.
Telus said it was disappointed by the ruling and would appeal.
A Meta spokesman declined to comment because the company “is not a party to the case in question.”
This is the first time in Spain that a court has recognised that a content moderator’s sick leave was caused by his work, said Francesc Feliu, the employee’s lawyer who also represents some 20 former and current CCC content moderators for similar legal reasons.
The former employee had to watch content that included “self-mutilation, decapitations of civilians killed by terrorist groups, torture inflicted on people, suicides,” the court said.
In 2022, CCC filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the social security agency’s decision that the moderator’s mental health condition was a result of his employment.
In his ruling on January 12, seen by JOBsNews, Judge Jesus Fuertes rejected CCC’s claim.
“The employee has been experiencing a situation of great emotional and psychological impact in his workplace,” he wrote, adding that the leave granted in 2019 was caused “exclusively and undoubtedly” by his work.
The worker’s inability to work was caused by severe anxiety including panic attacks, withdrawal, dysphagia and thanatophobia, the ruling said.
Martha Dark, director of London-based tech justice advocacy group Foxglove, said the court was “absolutely right to recognise that the work of keeping Facebook safe causes mental health illness”.
“Meta must compensate this brave former moderator for the harm he has suffered, but that is only half the battle,” she said. “They must also be forced to provide real, ongoing mental health care and safe workplaces for the tens of thousands of workers doing this work around the world.”
Dark, whose group was not involved in the case but helped organize a campaign by content moderators over their working conditions, urged governments to introduce regulations to ensure social media platforms are safe for both users and workers.
In 2020, Facebook reached a settlement with American content moderators who suffered from mental health issues. Last year, a moderator in Germany was placed on paid leave pending an internal investigation after he called for improved working conditions.
(Reporting by Joan Faus and Catarina Demony; editing by Charlie Devereux, Mark Potter and Alison Williams)
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