Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a serious issue today, namely, the work of social media content moderators. These people carry out a new form of work which is horrific in nature but regrettably is essential. On a daily basis, these workers will view and filter out the worst acts of humanity posted online in order that they do not appear on our screens. This is done through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It may come as a surprise to the Minister of State that approximately 2,000 workers in Dublin are working in these horrific jobs. The positions are outsourced, insecure and low-paid. They are doing the worst of work to protect us, but unfortunately, this comes at a cost to their own mental health. They are subject to serious psychological damage and injury due to being exposed to explicit content during the course of their everyday work.

We need to address the problems of these workers, as we now know this is causing post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and other psychological damage to many of those workers exposed to this type of content. A month ago, an open letter was published from more than 200 Facebook moderators, including well over 100 workers based in Dublin, that was addressed to the CEO of Facebook, as well as the chief executives of the recruitment company CPL and of Accenture. In this letter, Facebook content moderators wrote to "express our dismay at your decision to risk our lives - and the lives of our colleagues and loved ones - to maintain Facebook's profits during the pandemic". Another line from that letter stated the moderators did:

Facebook’s most brutal job. We waded through violence and child abuse for hours on end. Moderators working on child abuse content had targets increased during the pandemic, with no additional support.

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, said in the Dáil last month that this work is essential and he recognised that it has to be done. He stated that if there is any problem, employees should contact the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, and that he believed no such complaints had been made. To be frank, this is not good enough. It suggests that no problem exists, when in fact, we know that major problems exist. The reality is that these are agency workers on low pay, and in making complaints, they could see themselves risking their jobs.

Earlier this year a reported settlement of €52 million was made in a court case in which it was alleged that Facebook failed to protect workers tasked with moderating disturbing content from the grave mental health aspects of the job. More than 11,000 people who have worked as moderators for Facebook in the US will qualify for compensation under the settlement agreement. A 2019 report from The Vergefound that workers were paid as little as $28,000 per year, and I can tell the House that the rate of pay in Ireland is just €14.36 per hour. That is what these workers get paid for watching thousands of horrific videos each day, with very little mental health support.

There is another key issue here that must be addressed. Why are these jobs being outsourced? Facebook is the second or third most valuable and profitable company in the world. Yet it has chosen to outsource these essential roles to agencies and to pay the workers a distinctly low rate of pay for the horrific work that they do. From what I can see, they are effectively being treated as yellow-pack workers. Someone in the Government must recognise that this is not right. This is fundamentally wrong. I dread to imagine how horrific this work is. Indeed, one of these workers had to go home and explain to their families that they could not discuss their work with them. As this will be a "Prime Time" exposé in years to come, the response of the Minister of State to this issue will be very important. I ask him not to provide a regular Civil Service response. I ask him to tell us what the Government will do to actively engage on this issue to protect these vulnerable workers and to ensure that something changes fundamentally for them.