Over 140 Kenyan Facebook Moderators Diagnosed With Severe PTSD

Over 140 Kenyan content moderators for Meta have been diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) according to a report by CNN.

They were diagnosed by the head of mental health services at Kenyatta National Hospital on December 4 and filed in court as part of the ongoing case against Meta.

According to the medic, the moderators encountered, “extremely graphic content on a daily basis which included videos of gruesome murders, self-harm, suicides, attempted suicides, sexual violence, explicit sexual content, child physical and sexual abuse, horrific violent actions just to name a few.”

Tasked with ensuring lewd and gruesome content does not seep into the platform, the moderators often have to view such content and are often outsourced from developing countries by big tech companies.

In this case, a local outsourcing company hired the Kenyan moderators into the role with some stating they had not been made aware of the intricate details of their work.

In a lawsuit, they have named the outsourcing company as well as Meta itself even though there has been intervention to restrict them from naming the tech giant in the lawsuit.

Out of the 144 out of the 185 involved in the lawsuit, 81 per cent of them were seen to have had severe PTSD.

According to CNN, different moderators reported suffering different symptoms including; experiencing frequent breakdowns, vivid flashbacks and paranoia.

Another one reported developing trypophobia (fear of seeing dotted patterns) after having to watch a gruesome video.

In 2022, a former Facebook moderator sued the outsourcing company claiming unlawful termination and from there grew the class action suit.

The initial complainant had been fired after organising a peaceful protest against the unfair working conditions at their Nairobi offices.

Consequently, all 260 moderators were let go in 2023 for supporting the lawsuit which also listed unfair pay of $1.50 an hour.