LOS ANGELES—A class action lawsuit against the parent company of Chaturbate was filed by a content moderator for the platform, alleging PTSD, mental distress and other injuries. In a July 22 filing before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, plaintiff Neal Barber accused the operator of the popular webcamming platform of negligence and of "knowingly and intentionally" failing to support content moderators.
Barber's attorney, Christopher J. Hamner, is asking Chaturbate's parent company, Multi Media, and its customer services operator, Bayside Support Services, to pay for psychological treatment, offer medical monitoring funds, injunctive relief requiring the companies to implement mental health safeguards for all content moderators, and other relief mandated by the court. Multi Media and Bayside are named defendants in the lawsuit.
"Plaintiff alleges he and the proposed class have been subjected to daily exposure of extreme, violent, graphic, and sexually explicit content, without any of the safeguards now recognized as necessary to prevent lasting psychological harm to such content moderators," reads the lawsuit. "These injuries were not only foreseeable, but preventable. Had Defendants taken even the minimal precautions adopted by companies in Defendants’ industry, Plaintiff would not have suffered these injuries."
The lawsuit also refers to "industry standard" precautions for content moderators and trust and safety professionals. Chaturbate had not yet responded to a request for comment at post time.
In response to inquiries to Chaturbate made by senior reporter Natalie Musumeci at Business Insider, an unnamed spokesperson said that "[the] company has not been served nor has it reviewed the complaint and therefore cannot comment on the matter at this time. ... With that said, it takes content moderation very seriously, deeply values the work of its moderators, and remains committed to supporting the team responsible for this critical work."
