Former content moderator sues Facebook
Selena Scola claims the company did little to prevent her developing PTSD

A former Facebook content moderator has filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that it failed to protect its employees from severe mental trauma caused by the graphic images they see every day.
Selena Scola says she and other content moderators were exposed to “images and livestreamed broadcasts of child sexual abuse, rape, torture, bestiality, beheadings, suicide and murder”, according to the complaint.
The complaint also claims that while Facebook had drafted workplace safety standards to protect content moderators, the company routinely ignored those standards, forcing moderators to “work under conditions known to cause and exacerbate psychological trauma”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
CBS reports that Scola was “formally diagnosed with PTSD at an unspecified time”, and that she had worked at Facebook as a contractor for California company Pro Unlimited for nine months, starting last June.
Facebook's director of corporate communication, Bertie Thompson, acknowledged the lawsuit, saying: “We recognise that this work can often be difficult. That is why we take the support of our content moderators incredibly seriously.”
Facebook ”currently employs at least 7,500 content moderators” and the company has on-site counselling and mental health support, Time reports.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Should Britain withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights?
Talking Point With calls now coming from Labour grandees as well as Nigel Farage and the Tories, departure from the ECHR 'is starting to feel inevitable'
-
5 outspoken cartoons about Epstein survivors taking center stage
Cartoons Artists take on cover-ups, Trump surrounded, and more
-
Codeword: September 6, 2025
The Week's daily codeword puzzle
-
What an all-bot social network tells us about social media
Under The Radar The experiment's findings 'didn't speak well of us'
-
Broken brains: The social price of digital life
Feature A new study shows that smartphones and streaming services may be fueling a sharp decline in responsibility and reliability in adults
-
Supreme Court allows social media age check law
Speed Read The court refused to intervene in a decision that affirmed a Mississippi law requiring social media users to verify their ages
-
What's Linda Yaccarino's legacy? And what's next for X?
Today's Big Question An 'uncertain future' in the age of TikTok
-
Social media: How 'content' replaced friendship
Feature Facebook has shifted from connecting with friends to competing with entertainment companies
-
Meta on trial: What will become of Mark Zuckerberg's social media empire?
Today's Big Question Despite the CEO's attempt to ingratiate himself with Trump, Meta is on trial, accused by the U.S. government of breaking antitrust law
-
What does an ex-executive's new memoir reveal about Meta's free speech pivot?
Today's Big Question 'Careless People' says Facebook was ready to do China censorship
-
What's Mark Zuckerberg's net worth?
In Depth The Meta magnate's products are a part of billions of lives