Two former TikTok moderators filed a federal lawsuit today to seek class-action status against platform and parent company Bytedance, NPR reported. Plaintiffs, Ashley Velez and Reece Young, worked as contractors for the social video platform for the past year. To live up to their roles as presenters, they witnessed “many acts of extreme and graphic violence,” including murder, bestiality, necrophilia and other disturbing images. The lawsuit alleges TikTok’s negligence and violations of labor laws in California, the state where the platform’s US operations are based.
Both plaintiffs said they were tasked with viewing hours of disturbing footage, often working 12-hour days. Both paid for the counseling out of pocket to deal with the psychological toll of the job. The lawsuit alleges that TikTok imposed high “productivity standards” on its moderators, which forced them to watch large amounts of disturbing content without interruption. Both employees were also forced to sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of their employment.
“We would see death and graphic, graphic pornography. I would see naked underage kids any day,” Velez told NPR. “I saw people being shot in the face and another video of a child being beaten made me cry for two hours.”
In the past, moderators on Facebook and other platforms have spoken out about the heavy psychological burden of their jobs. Staffers have claimed they have only a short time, usually just seconds, to determine if a video violates the platform’s policies. The job has often been called “the worst job in tech,” and workers regularly suffer from depression, PTSD-like symptoms and suicidal thoughts. In a 2020 settlement, Facebook paid over $52 million to a group of former presenters who said they developed PTSD from work.
This isn’t the first lawsuit of its kind for TikTok, which currently has a base of 10,000 content moderators worldwide. Last December, another content moderator for TikTok also sued the platform for negligence and violation of workplace safety standards. According to NPR, the lawsuit was dropped last month after the plaintiff was dismissed.
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