Foxglove supports whistle-blowing Facebook content moderators
Foxglove is helping to bring a tech-justice legal case by Facebook content moderators. There are now many thousands of content moderators working to review problematic Facebook content. Some employed directly by the company but others by third-party companies providing moderation services to it.
Many have suffered serious harm as a result of poor working conditions, and a lack of support and training, combined with the harrowing content they are forced to watch.
Previously, there have been attempts by former content moderators to sue Facebook in the USA.
Foxglove is supporting a group of moderators preparing legal action in the Republic of Ireland. Ireland is Facebook’s European hub, and sets policy for the entire “Europe, Middle East, and Africa” market. This is the first time that Facebook has faced legal action about its treatment of moderators within the European Union.
We hope that this case will get redress for the affected moderators who are now suffering from very challenging conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We also hope that it will force Facebook to disclose a lot more information about the realities of what moderators currently have to deal with and push social media companies to radically improve working conditions.
You can read more about the experiences of Facebook moderators and the conditions they face in this Vice article which features an interview with our very own Cori Crider.