Spanish Court Admits Facebook's Moderator Has Mental Health Disorders Due To Graphic Content

A lot of Facebook content makes workers need psychiatric treatment. (photo: Doc. pexels)

JAKARTA - A court in Spain has acknowledged that a former Facebook moderator has mental health problems as a result of his task of reviewing graphics content that includes head removal.

This decision, issued by the Barcelona Court and supported by the Spanish social security agency, could have an impact on the way social media companies work with moderators.

The moderator works between 2018 and 2020 for the CCC Barcelona Digital Services, part of Telus International, which is one of the service providers employed by Facebook owner Meta.

The court stated that the psychiatric treatment required by the moderator was a direct result of his work problems, so he was entitled to additional compensation for sick leave.

Telus expressed his disappointment with the ruling and plans to file an appeal, while a Meta spokesman declined to comment on the grounds that the company was not a party to the case.

For the first time in Spain, the court acknowledged that a content moderator's illness could be caused by his job. Francesc Feliu, the worker's lawyer, stated that this has serious implications, with about 20 other content moderators at CCC claiming similar rights.

The moderator, who was exposed to content, was in the form of "self-employment, deletion of the heads of civilians killed by terrorist groups, torture that was induced by people, suicide," suffered major emotional and psychological impacts.

The court's ruling noted that the sick leave granted in 2019 was exclusively due to work, with the worker unable to work due to severe anxiety, panic attacks, isolation, dysfagia, and thanatophobia.

Martha Dark, director of the Foxglove technology justice advocacy group, welcomed a court decision acknowledging the work caused mental health problems.

Dark stressed that Meta must provide compensation to the moderator and is also obliged to provide mental health care and a safe work environment for thousands of content moderators around the world.

For the record, in 2020, Facebook has resolved similar cases with content moderators in the United States who are experiencing mental health problems. Last year, a moderator in Germany was fired on paid leave after highlighting working conditions that needed to be improved.