Complaint against Meta: Former Barcelona moderators report consequences from viewing violent images

BarcelonaA group of 29 former Facebook and Instagram moderators from Barcelona have filed a complaint against Meta and the company CCC Barcelona Digital Services for the psychological disorders they suffered after having to review hundreds of violent images daily, including murder, rape, and child pornography. In the complaint, advanced by TV3 and obtained by Efe, they accuse CCC Barcelona Digital Services, a company subcontracted by Meta, of a continuous offense against workers' rights, another of serious injuries due to gross negligence, and a third offense against moral integrity.

The plaintiffs, represented by lawyer Francesc Feliu, want the complaint to be added to the proceedings currently being conducted by Barcelona's Investigating Court No. 29 following another complaint, since they involve the same crimes and against the same company. The complaint alleges that moderators have had to review platform content, ranging from videos to violent comments, under "absolutely inhumane and indecent working conditions, as well as at a work pace that is completely unbearable for any human being." This situation, according to the complaint, has left workers "exposed to psychosocial risks," both due to the audiovisual content they moderate and due to their working conditions.

Furthermore, they accuse the company of not informing them in advance about the type of content they would be reviewing and of providing them with "opaque" information about the task they would be performing: "Before hiring them, they were not informed that they would be viewing extremely violent content, much less continuously throughout the task." The complaint also alleges that the workers were only allowed five minutes of visual rest per hour, which could not be accumulated, and that they could not be absent "under any circumstances from the chair in which they sat for 55 minutes at a time." That is, throughout their entire workday, they only had 35 minutes to stop viewing violent content.

"The viewing load—for each moderator—started at 100 pieces of content per day," but "progressively increased to 800," the complaint states. As a result of this work, according to the text, the moderators ended up suffering from various pathologies, such as anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares, tachycardia, dizziness with fainting, hopelessness, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, vomiting, irritability, and feelings of guilt, according to the complaint.

Prior to this complaint, each of these workers, who were employed by this company between 2018 and 2022, filed a complaint with the Labor Inspectorate regarding the working conditions, lack of rest, the type of content viewed, and the lack of preventive measures by the company.