Scola v. Facebook | 2018 -2021

A collage featuring Mark Zuckerberg in a tuxedo on the left, a woman wearing sunglasses and a zip-up jacket on the right, and a central large Facebook logo with a silhouette of a phone displaying the Facebook logo.
A collage featuring Mark Zuckerberg in a tuxedo on the left, a woman wearing sunglasses and a zip-up jacket on the right, and a central large Facebook logo with a silhouette of a phone displaying the Facebook logo.

In 2018, Selena Scola became a named plaintiff in Scola v. Facebook, Inc., a federal class action concerning unsafe working conditions for Facebook content moderators exposed to graphic and traumatic online material.

The litigation brought public attention to the psychological risks embedded in large-scale content moderation. Workers responsible for reviewing violent, abusive, exploitative, and disturbing material alleged that Facebook failed to provide adequate safeguards for workplace-related psychological harm.

The case concluded with a $52 million settlement benefiting over 14,000 current and former content moderators in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. The resolution included financial compensation and workplace protections addressing psychological counseling, mental-health safeguards, and technology intended to reduce exposure to harmful imagery.

In 2023, the Impact Fund inducted Selena Scola into its Class Action Hall of Fame in recognition of her role as a lead plaintiff and the broader significance of the litigation.

Collaboration between Selena Scola and ARTificial Mind art studio founded by artist Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm that specialises in creating tech-art.

A digital collage depicting the theme of artificial intelligence and human connection, with a central computer monitor displaying photos of diverse people. Surrounding it are images of a woman, a unicorn, and various technological and symbolic icons like a brain, a globe, and interconnected nodes. The background features a face with glowing neural networks and a city skyline. The frame is decorated with small illustrations of people, technology, and nature, and includes text like "THE HUMANS BEHIND THE MACHINE" and icons at the corners.

“I see it, so you don’t have to is a 2×3 metre textile wall hanging woven on a traditional Jacquard loom. The work draws on the lived experiences of content moderators. The underpaid workers who review and filter the data that AI systems are trained on and makes their largely hidden labour visible through a physical, slowmade object.

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Selena Scola was inducted into the Impact Fund Class Action Hall of Fame in 2023 for her role as a named plaintiff in Scola v. Facebook, a historic content moderation class action that secured a $52 million settlement and workplace protections for over 14,000 moderators.

Impact Fund | Selena Scola v. Facebook

  • lead plaintiff Selena Scola

    The Impact Fund created the Class Action Hall of Fame in 2016 to honor the courage and sacrifice of lead plaintiffs whose commitment and determination has led to significant advances in economic, environmental, racial and social justice.

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  • Selena Scola Impact Fund

    Class Action Heroes Honored Impact Fund Class Action Hall of Fame: 2023 Inductees Announced

    Class Action Heroes Honored
  • Selena Scola Social Justice

    Three Brave Content Moderators Take On Facebook On Behalf Of Thousands In Historic Class Action

    Impact Fund Social Justice Blog

Impact Fund Class Action Hall of Fame Ceremony 2023: Selena Scola vs Facebook

March, 2023 San Francisco, CA

Selena Scola: I want to thank Erin, Gabriel, and all of the class representatives that supported this case against Facebook, along with Steven Williams, the Saveri law firm, Burns Charest LLP firm (co-counsel), and Most & Associates Representing the plaintiffs, for their support. Due to the global impact of our work, former content moderators Chris Gray in Ireland and Daniel Montague in South Africa are currently working to hold Facebook, a local Bay Area and multinational corporation, accountable in courts of law for unsafe working conditions and human rights violations. Unfortunately, we have yet to see content moderators step forward from the Philippines. 

Content moderation highlights complex global problems from terrorism, insurgencies, and child endangerment, to misinformation, online scams, self-inflicted premature death, and the decline of mental health in younger populations, while moderators work with diverse stakeholders, including governments, civil society groups, and individual users.   

Until computer vision, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies are able to classify, identify, and remove content deemed harmful by facebook's public policies, there will be humans in-the-loop training facebook's algorithms at the long-term cost of their overall health and well-being.   We greatly appreciate the recognition of our work in Scola vs. Facebook, as such recognition continues to assist those still seeking justice.  

Thank you. 

The archive below preserves press coverage of Selena Scola v. Facebook, including reporting on content-moderator working conditions, psychological trauma, litigation, and the $52 million settlement.

Scola v. Facebook | Press Archive