Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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27. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the fact that many content moderators for social media platforms are being subject to serious psychological damage and injury due to being exposed to explicit content during the course of their work; and if his Department will engage with workers and social media platforms to address this situation as the practice is causing post-traumatic stress disorder, amongst other psychological damage, to many workers exposed to such explicit content. [34902/20]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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My question is a straightforward one. It relates to people working as content moderators for social media platforms. I want to ask if the Ministers are aware of this new form of work and the fact that the people engaged in it are subject to serious psychological damage and injury due to being exposed to explicit content during the course of their everyday work, and if the Tánaiste will engage with those workers, and, indeed, with their employers, to address this situation because in some instances, as we now know, this is causing post-traumatic stress disorder, among other psychological damage, to many of those workers exposed to this type of content.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important question.

Content moderators working for social media platforms play an important role in preventing the wider distribution of explicit content on these platforms.

Social media content moderators should be treated by an employer in the same way as any other worker exposed to a potential harm. The employer must ensure that the employee has been provided with the appropriate training before taking on the role. The employer must also ensure that procedures are in place to identify workplace risks, with supports in place to avoid employees being affected by a workplace psycho-social hazard or stressor.

In the first instance, every employer is legally obliged to carry out a risk assessment with a particular focus on work that may be hazardous to the worker and prepare a safety statement. A written safety statement should set out how an employer will protect the safety and health of all employees and include an assessment of the risks involved. Proper risk assessment along with mitigation measures, is the foundation for all workplace health and safety.

The Health and Safety Authority, HSA, has an extensive range of advisory and guidance material available to all employers to assist them in putting in place measures to identify and manage specific psycho-social hazards. Promoting positive mental health within the workplace is good for the employees, but it is also a factor in improving overall business performance.

Any content moderator working for a social media platform, with a concern for his or her health and safety arising from the manner in which his or her work is organised, should contact the HSA in confidence. On foot of the Deputy's question, I made inquiries with the authority and I am informed that it has not received any queries relating to content.

In addition, An Garda Síochána investigates the posting and circulation on social media platforms of certain acts and images of an explicit nature, which if found to be unlawful, can lead to prosecution. My colleague, the Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, is responsible for media policy, including online safety legislation, and is currently advancing a regulatory framework that will deal with online safety.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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To expand a little on the kind of work that these people are engaged in, they are responsible for assessing user-generated content submitted to these online platforms. They have to look at videos and other content that users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms upload to see if it complies with the standards. I am not talking about the funny videos with headings such as, "I did not go to work because a cat fell on my head and then a dog with shoes tried to do me justice." I am talking about videos of very serious extreme violence, sexual abuse or child abuse, and videos of people being beheaded. These people are subject to absolute trauma day in, day out and it is having a significant impact on their health.

I ask that this new form of work would be recognised as such. I do not think that the Tánaiste intends to be unfair to them, but it is not fair to say they can go to the HSA or, indeed, to the Garda. This is a workplace issue. It is one that perhaps legislation and legislators need to catch up with because it is very much a new form of work and a new type of occupation.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I am familiar with the work. It must be very difficult work to do to have to sit for hours on end watching explicit, violent or deeply offensive content. Some of it can be done by artificial intelligence but we know that that is not good enough. That is why one needs a human being to do much of that work. Somebody needs to do it. If they do not do that job the content gets online and perhaps is seen by children or others, and perhaps incites violence, terrorism or any of those things to which the Deputy referred. It is very important work, therefore, that people agree to do.

It is absolutely essential that their employer, whether it is their direct employer or indirectly through an agency or third party, looks out for their mental health and well-being. I am certainly open to any suggestions or proposals that anyone may have to make sure that that is the case.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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Facebook is the largest of these platforms, and the one where most of the violence, and, indeed, disturbing content, is shared. The content moderators in Dublin have been outsourced. This is despite the fact that their work is essential. It is deemed essential by Facebook. It has to carry on and as the Tánaiste stated, artificial intelligence will only do so much. It will not do the job of these people.

Facebook has outsourced its responsibility in some respects. According to an article in The Sunday Business Post, a worker said that he could not even tell his family what he was doing. There is a huge amount of secrecy around this and a huge amount of what I would consider skating up to the very edge of what is acceptable industrial relations practices.

The workers and many of their representatives believe Facebook is aware that the jobs that it is asking these people to do are causing them this level of psychological damage up to and including post-traumatic stress disorder and that is why the company has outsourced it. There is a job here for us, not only to talk about it but to engage with those workers because this is a new form of work. This is not the type of work that was done when I was younger or, indeed, when the Minister was younger. This is very new. We need to inform ourselves. I ask that the Tánaiste makes time to meet these workers or their representatives to hear at first hand what they are going through.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I certainly would be happy to do that. As I say, it must be extraordinarily difficult work to do but it is work that somebody has to do to protect the rest of us. It is important that those staff who agree to do that job have their well-being protected.

I meet representatives of Facebook and other digital platforms maybe once a year. I will certainly make it part of the agenda or if there is a union representative for those workers, I would be happy to arrange for a meeting for them as well.