‘Severe Psychological Trauma’: TikTok Moderator Sues Over PTSD From Watching Graphic Videos

TikTok via Twitter.

Former TikTok content moderator Candie Frazier is suing the platform, alleging it neglected to protect her mental and emotional health while she watched and flagged graphic videos.

TikTok can of course be a bulwark for the worst the internet has to offer. According to Frazier and her lawsuit, users don’t know the half of it.

The Verge reported that Frazier recently quit her job as a third-party moderator after she alleged she was subjected to watching graphic videos without adequate protections for herself. She is suing TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in California.

James Vincent, reporting for The Verge, wrote:

In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in the California Central District Court, Candie Frazier says she spent 12 hours a day moderating videos uploaded to TikTok for a third-party contracting firm named Telus International. In that time, Frazier says she witnessed “thousands of acts of extreme and graphic violence,” including mass shootings, child rape, animal mutilation, cannibalism, gang murder, and genocide.

Frazier says that in order to deal with the huge volume of content uploaded to TikTok daily, she and her fellow moderators had to watch between three and ten videos simultaneously, with new videos loaded in at least every 25 seconds. Moderators are only allowed to take one 15 minute break in the first four hours of their shift, and then additional 15 minute breaks every two hours afterwards. The lawsuit says ByteDance monitors performance closely and “heavily punishes any time taken away from watching graphic videos.”

Frazier said that ByteDance did not adhere to standards for moderators which are widely accepted across the tech industry. As a result, she said she cannot sleep and has endured “severe psychological trauma including depression and symptoms associated with anxiety and PTSD.”

TikTok spokesperson Hilary McQuaide told The Verge, “While we do not comment on ongoing litigation, we strive to promote a caring working environment for our employees and contractors.”

“Our Safety team partners with third party firms on the critical work of helping to protect the TikTok platform and community, and we continue to expand on a range of wellness services so that moderators feel supported mentally and emotionally,” McQuaide added.