YouTube is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the Google-owned video-sharing platform failed to provide a safe workplace for contractual workers whose job is to watch and remove thousands of content displaying "acts of extreme and graphic violence and sexual assault.”

The San-Francisco based Joseph Saveri Law Firm is representing the plaintiff, who worked as a content moderator for YouTube from 2018 to 2019. The plaintiff alleged that the company did not support employees like her who is required to view abortions,  animal mutilation, child rape, murders, suicide, and other objectionable and violent acts. 

During her employment as a YouTube content moderator for staffing company Collabera, the plaintiff viewed a video of a “smashed open skull with people eating from it, a woman kidnapped and beheaded and a human head being run over by a tank. "

The plaintiff developed and suffered significant psychological trauma including anxiety, depression, and symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to "unmitigated exposure to highly toxic and extremely disturbing images viewed using YouTube proprietary single review tool (SRT), according to the lawsuit.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff claimed that exposure to graphic violence impacted her health. She still experiencing horrific nightmares, panic attacks and cannot stay in crowded areas such as concerts and other events because she is afraid of mass shootings. 

YouTube Wellness Coaches unavailable to evening shift workers

The lawsuit alleges that YouTube or contract companies do not follow their own moderation policies and standards. They failed to provide workers with the necessary information before starting the job.

YouTube is supposed to provide “Wellness Coaches,” but they aren’t available for people who work evening shifts. The wellness coaches allegedly are not licensed to provide professional medical guidance, the plaintiff claimed. 

Additionally, she claimed that content moderators had to pay for their own medical treatment when they needed to seek professional or medical help.

Furthermore, the plaintiff alleged they were “chronically understaffed,” since many of the content moderators quit their stressful job in less than a year. The understaffing forces personnel to work overtime, exceeding YouTube's guidelines of a four-hour daily viewing limit.

YouTube's expectations are high. Each moderator is required to review 100 to 300 pieces of video content each day and they are only allowed an  “error rate of 2% to 5%,” according to the complaint.

YouTube and its contract companies control and monitor how each video is displayed to content moderators. Content may appear in full-screen versus thumbnails or blurred. They also monitor how quickly the moderators watch in-sequence. The content moderators do not control this process.

“YouTube also demands that Google vendors sign sweeping Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs),” and no one is allowed to speak about the content they have seen or the workplace conditions. The NDA became a requirement 4 days after a critical article appeared in "The Verge" claiming that content moderators were "at-risk" for PTSD, depression, and other trauma-related health issues," the lawsuit further alleged. 

The suit comes as content moderators for social media companies and third-party vendors including Collabera, Vaco, and Accenture are starting to speak out about the mental health issues that the job creates. 

The plaintiff is seeking damages, declaratory, injunctive, and other equitable relief to protect her interests and others in similar situations due to their job as a YouTube content moderator. She is requesting a jury trial.

Due to her fragile emotional state and her fear of publicity, the plaintiff is suing under the pseudonym, Jane Doe.

The Joseph Saveri Law Firm filed a similar class-action lawsuit against Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) that netted a $52 million settlement. 

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