TikTok Moderator Says Reviewing ‘Disturbing’ Content Gave Her PTSD, Depression

TikTok Moderator Class Action Lawsuit Overview:

• Who: A content moderator at TikTok is suing the video platform and its parent company, ByteDance, alleging it did not provide a safe environment for her and other moderators.
• Why: The plaintiffs says she was forced to spend 12 hours each day reviewing disturbing content, leaving her with depression and anxiety.
• Where: The lawsuit was filed in a California federal court.

TikTok did not provide adequate mental health protections for its content moderators, who had to spend 12-hour days reviewing “disturbing” content and then later suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Candie Frazier filed the class action lawsuit against the video platform and its parent company, ByteDance, Dec. 23 in a California federal court, alleging negligence and violations of California business laws. 

Frazier says every day, TikTok relies on its content moderators to view objectionable videos and remove any that violate the corporation’s terms of use.

TikTok users upload millions of videos to its platform each day. Frazier says many of these uploads include graphic and objectionable content.

“While working at the direction of ByteDance and TikTok, Content Moderators—including Plaintiff Frazier—witness thousands of acts of extreme and graphic violence, including sexual assault, genocide, rape and mutilation,” the lawsuit says. “Plaintiff Frazier views videos of the genocide in Myanmar, mass shootings, children being raped and animals being mutilated.”

Plaintiff Has ‘Horrific Nightmares’ and Replays Videos In Her Mind, Lawsuit Says

Frazier says that, as a result of the constant exposure to highly toxic images at the workplace, she suffers from significant psychological trauma including anxiety, depression and PTSD. The lawsuit states that Frazier has “horrific nightmares” and often replays “videos that she has seen in her mind” while trying to sleep.

It alleges that ByteDance and TikTok are aware of the negative psychological effects that viewing graphic and objectionable content has on content moderators. 

“Despite this knowledge, they have not implemented safety standards known throughout the industry to protect their Content Moderators from harm,” the lawsuit states.

Some industry standards include disabling audio or minimizing or blurring parts of the disturbing content. The suit also alleges that the companies do not provide adequate mental health support.

Plaintiff Seeks Jury Trial, Compensation, Mental Health Support 

Frazier is seeking a jury trial and compensation for herself and other U.S. content moderators who were exposed to disturbing videos and imagery on TikTok and for TikTok and ByteDance to provide mental health support and treatment for content moderators.

This is not the first time content moderators have taken action against their employers. In November, Facebook came to a $52 million class action lawsuit settlement with content moderators, resolving complaints of employee trauma.

According to that class action lawsuit, plaintiffs allege Facebook failed to provide a safe work environment for content moderators, who may suffered from trauma-related injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, as a result of repeatedly being exposed to graphic and objectionable material. 

Do you think TikTok should do more to protect its moderators from harm? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Joseph R. Saveri, Steven N. Williams and Anupama K. Reddy of Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP.

The TikTok Moderator Class Action Lawsuit is Frazier v. ByteDance Inc, et al., Case No. 2:21-cv-09913-RGK-MRW, in the U.S. District Court Central District of California 

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