The court of inquiry number 29 of Barcelona has accepted the complaint of a former Meta subcontractor in Spain for the serious mental disorders he developed as a result of his work as a filter of atrocities on Facebook and Instagram . It is the first time that a criminal process has been opened against a company linked to Meta in Europe. Until now, the complaints had been limited to the labor field.
A report by La Vanguardia revealed in October the enormous mental health crisis that is punishing the workforce of CCC Barcelona Digital Services, with offices in the Glòries tower in Barcelona, ??which is dedicated to moderating content (filtering videos, images and the texts that are published and those that are not) on Mark Zuckerberg’s social networks. Acquired four years ago by the Canadian group Telus International, CCC has around two thousand workers, and between 20% and 25% are out of work, with a majority incidence of psychiatric disorders.
In the article from four months ago, it was reported that the former employee P.S., a 26-year-old Brazilian who recently managed to have another court in Barcelona recognize his illness as a work-related accident, had decided to report the company via penalty
La Vanguardia has interviewed about fifteen Facebook and Instagram content moderators, who explained the barbarities they had to see during their working days, in changing morning, late or night shifts. In the offices of the Glòries tower, they had a wellness area with psychological assistance that everyone considered insufficient for the type of images they had to see.
In an interlocutory hearing on February 12, magistrate Santiago García admits the complaint against CCC and Telus International, as well as against six of the managers. However, it refuses to include Facebook Spain SL, as requested by the lawsuit, given that it considers that the subsidiary in Madrid has “no relationship with CCC and Telus, nor with the activity of the complainant”, since only is dedicated to managing online advertising for Zuckerberg’s parent company.
For this reason, the next step proposed by the complainant’s lawyer, Francesc Feliu, from the Espacio Jurídico Feliu Fins law firm, is to request that the complaint be expanded against Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, Meta’s European headquarters in Ireland, which operate the platforms.
The lawsuit, for damages, accuses the defendants of social crimes and injuries due to serious imprudence and against moral integrity. The defendants are José M., David P., Ahmed M., Pedro M., Tiago Q. and Eriton S.
The complaint requested civil liability compensation of 150,000 euros from the defendants as “directly responsible”, and from CCC, Telus and Facebook Spain, as “solidary or subsidiary civil liability”.
In the resolution, Judge García agrees to summon the defendants for questioning, as well as the complainant and the company’s personnel representative.
Feliu also represents 25 more CCC content moderators who harbor mental pathologies, in some cases similar to those of P.S. This group plans to file a collective complaint against CCC and Telus in the coming days in terms similar to the one that has now been accepted for processing.
In Ireland, where Meta has its European headquarters, at least 35 moderators have filed claims for damages before the High Court, although these cases follow the civil route, and not the criminal one, as is currently the case in Barcelona. Some CCC workers in Barcelona are included in this procedure, as explained to this newspaper by Irish lawyer Diane Treanor, from the Coleman Legal firm.
In 2020, Facebook was forced to pay $52 million in damages to more than 11,000 moderators who had filed a class action lawsuit in the United States.
