Facebook pressured therapists to leak confidential moderator info...
TRAUMA
COUNSELORS WERE PRESSURED TO DIVULGE CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT FACEBOOK
MODERATORS, INTERNAL LETTER CLAIMS
NEARLY 1,500 MILES from the Menlo Park headquarters of Facebook, at a company outpost
in Austin, Texas, moderators toil around the clock to screen and scrub some the
most gruesome, hateful, and heinous posts that make their way onto the social
network and its photo-sharing subsidiary, Instagram. They are required to view
as many as 800 pieces of disturbing content in a single shift, and routinely
turn to on-site counselors to help cope with the procession of stomach-turning
images, videos, and text. But some members of this invisible army have
complained, in a statement widely circulated within Facebook, that the
outsourcing giant that officially employs them, Accenture, has repeatedly
attempted to violate the confidentiality of these therapy sessions.
The moderators work from within a special
section for outsourced staffers at Facebook Austin. The Texas outpost is
designed to mimic the look and feel of the company’s famously opulent Silicon
Valley digs, but Accenture workers say they’re reminded daily of their
secondary status and denied perks, prestige, and basic respect. This
second-class tier at Facebook, a sort of international shadow workforce, has
been well documented in
the media,
from Manila to Arizona,
and it’s not clear whether the company has done anything to
address it beyond issuing defensive PR
statements. Moderators in Austin say their job is a brutalizing slog
and that Facebook remains largely indifferent to their struggles. Access to
on-site counseling is one of the few bright points for this workforce.
The letter alleges that Accenture managers attempted to pressure
multiple on-site counselors to share information relating to topics discussed
in employee trauma sessions.
But now even this grim perk has been
undermined by corporate prying, according to a letter drafted by a group of
about a dozen Austin moderators who work across Facebook and Instagram. The
letter alleges that, starting in early July, Accenture managers attempted to
pressure multiple on-site counselors to share information relating to topics
discussed in employee trauma sessions. This information was understood by both
counselors and Accenture employees to be confidential, said several Accenture
sources interviewed by The Intercept. It is not clear what specific information
related to the sessions was sought by the managers.
Facebook moderators, who spoke to The
Intercept on the condition of anonymity fearing workplace reprisal, said a
therapist — or “wellness coach,” as they’re known internally — refused to
discuss a moderator’s session with Accenture management and later resigned over
the incident.
Accenture’s Austin operation has a history
of dissent: Its contractors have previously expressed workplace grievances on
an internal company-wide Facebook message board known as Workplace. A May report from the
Washington Post described how Austin moderators organized and
published complaints over a starting wage of $16.50 an hour, which left some
moderators working side jobs like driving for Uber “to make ends meet.” The
article noted that thousands of employees had viewed or commented on posts on
Workplace complaining over issues like “micromanagement, pay cuts and
inadequate counseling support.”
Facebook’s Austin moderators spoke out again
earlier this month, posting to Workplace a letter detailing the confidentiality
concerns related to the Accenture counseling program, known as WeCare, which
provides licensed “wellness coaches” to the company’s content screeners. The
Workplace letter calls the alleged pressuring of workplace therapists “at best
a careless breach of trust into the Wellness program and, at worst, an ethics
and possible legal violation,” and “no longer an isolated incident but a
systemic top-down problem plaguing Accenture management.”
The full letter, obtained by The
Intercept, is below. We have removed specific references to Accenture
managers who have not been contacted for comment.
Whistleblowers@ Complaint
I’m sharing the following on behalf of
coworkers who wish to remain anonymous.
Please consider the following an official
complaint to Whistleblowers@.
It has come to our attention that an
Accenture [manager] pressured a WeCare licensed counselor to divulge the
contents of their session with an Accenture employee. The counselor refused,
stating confidentiality concerns, but the [manager] pressed on by stating that
because this was not a clinical setting, confidentiality did not exist. The
counselor again refused. This pressuring of a licensed counselor to divulge
confidential information is at best a careless breach of trust into the
Wellness program and, at worst, an ethics and possible legal violation.
Before we continue, we must unequivocally
state that confidentiality does exist for these sessions. Because these
counselors are licensed and required to keep confidentiality in their personal
practices, there is an expectation of privacy prior to engagement. In order for
that confidentiality to not exist, the patient must sign a confidentiality and
HIPAA waiver prior to any sessions having taken place. The receiver of the care
must be made fully aware that there is no confidentiality. Neither Facebook,
Accenture, nor WeCare can remove confidentiality post facto from any previous
session. If these entities wish for confidentiality to cease to exist in these
sessions, they must have every single person utilizing these resources to sign
a waiver. However, forcing us to sign away our confidentiality could open all counselors
to losing their license due to ethics diligence set out by their governing
boards. It could be very difficult for WeCare to run a multi-million dollar
business contracting to Facebook if their counselors begin to fear losing their
licenses AND workers stop utilizing this resource due to lack of
confidentiality. Facebook, Accenture, and WeCare may try to feign ignorance or
implement common liability limiting language in their response. We hope all
parties do not succumb to these common and repeated trends, and instead do what
is right instead of what you are legally allowed to get away with.
In order for workers to feel safe when
divulging information to these counselors, we are requesting the following:
[Accenture] Manger: The manager who pressed the
counselor for confidential medical information must be removed from the project
immediately. To do any less would be Facebook, Accenture, and WeCare condoning
breaches in medical confidentiality. Allowing the pressuring of a licensed
counselor into committing an act [that] could strip the counselor of their
credentials must be addressed swiftly.
Affirm Confidentiality: Facebook must affirm
that wellness interactions with WeCare counselors and Wellness Champs have been
and always will be confidential within the necessary safety reporting
standards. To do any less would throw the validity of all wellness interactions
into question, make it impossible for WeCare to deliver care, and most
importantly would open all licensed counselors to losing their licenses and
possible litigation for delivering counseling under false pretenses of
confidentiality. Anything less than clinical confidentiality will lead to HIPAA
violations by all parties.
Restructure Wellness Program: Any and all
changes to the wellness program will be negotiated by and announced by WeCare
and their [Facebook account manager] signing off on it. Any changes made
to wellness procedures outside this chain of command will be unenforceable and
seen as vendors overreaching their authority.
Before Facebook, Accenture, and WeCare
launch their independent investigations into these claims against the
[manager], we would like to thank everyone involved for their due diligence in
this matter.
Since the beginning of writing this letter
we became aware that [a different manager] that the above [manager] reports to
is now pressuring these counselors to divulge more confidential information.
This is no longer an isolated incident but a systemic top-down problem plaguing
Accenture management. This must be addressed as soon as possible. Unless all
entities involved address this issue properly and swiftly, they will open
themselves up to a plethora of HIPAA violations that are incredibly financially
punitive. Until FB affirms confidentiality has always and will always exist in
those sessions we implore everyone to stop utilizing the licensed wellness
counselors. If Accenture management is trying to use WeCare to gather
information on workers, we as workers cannot in good faith trust that anything
we say to a licensed counselor could not then be used to have us terminated.
If you would like to work with us in our
efforts to ensure wellness confidentiality, the integrity of the wellness
program, and the general wellbeing of [contingent workers], please send an
email to [REDACTED].
Rolfe Lowe, an attorney of the firm Wachler
& Associates who specializes in health care law and HIPAA compliance, told
The Intercept that the incident as described likely didn’t constitute a HIPAA
violation.
“We’re a body in a seat, and they don’t acknowledge the work
we do.”
The letter, already viewed thousands of
times, prompted a quick reply from an outsourcing manager at Facebook
corporate, who claimed that an internal investigation had found “no violation
or breach of trust between our licensed counselors and a contracted employee,”
though he added that the company will “continue to address this with Accenture
to ensure everyone is handling this appropriately,” and that the team’s
“wellness coaches” will receive a “refresh” on what they “can and can’t share.”
A Facebook spokesperson didn’t answer
specific questions posed about the allegations but provided a statement:
“All of our partners must provide a
resiliency plan that is reviewed and approved by Facebook. This includes a
holistic approach to wellbeing and resiliency that puts the needs of their
employees first. All leaders and wellness coaches receive training on this
employee resource and while we do not believe that there was a breach of
privacy in this case, we have used this as an opportunity to reemphasize that
training across the organization.”
Accenture provided this statement:
These allegations are inaccurate. Our
people’s wellbeing is our top priority and our trust-and-safety teams in Austin
have unrestricted access to wellness support. Additionally, our wellness
program offers proactive and on-demand counseling and is backed by a strong
employee assistance program. Our people are actively encouraged to raise
wellness concerns through these programs. We also review, benchmark and invest
in our wellness programs on an ongoing basis to create the most supportive
workplace environment – regularly seeking input from industry experts, medical
professionals and our people.
According to workers interviewed by The
Intercept, hundreds of moderators at Facebook Austin sometimes share a single
counselor for their shift. Some of them doubt that Facebook takes their
well-being seriously: “We’re trash to them,” said one moderator. “We’re a
body in a seat, and they don’t acknowledge the work we do.” Facebook is
“largely responsible for any trauma reps experience, from a moral standpoint,”
according to another moderator. “They just wanted to further remove themselves
from responsibility for making our lives hell.”
One source familiar with the mental health situation in Austin,
speaking on the condition of anonymity fearing retaliation, described a “toxic
environment” where traumas compound and multiply as contractors are exposed to
deeply disturbing imagery day in and day out while being denied meaningful
care: “People are afraid to take a wellness break for 10 minutes because
they’re gonna have hell to pay.”
The same source said that Austin moderators had at one point
been encouraged by WeCare counselors to talk among themselves when struggling
with mental anguish — “to just turn to their neighbor, and just start
connecting, talk, take a walk, do something just to connect and disconnect from
the screen. And that worked really well for a lot of people.” But this practice
was soon banned by Accenture, the source said, because it cut into the time
that could be spent clearing the queue of disturbing content; Accenture, the
source said, told moderators that they could stretch their legs in an adjacent
parking garage, but not stray any further outside the office.
Similar cuts have been made to counselor
access: Multiple Accenture sources told The Intercept that moderators could
previously count on 45 minutes every week with a counselor, or two hours a day
for those viewing images of child sexual abuse, with a minimum quota of one
visit per quarter. Today, moderators find themselves barred from even this
scant mental health care unless “their productivity was high enough for that
day,” said one of the sources, regardless of whether they’d spend all day
reviewing Ku Klux Klan memes or acts of rape. “Management’s idea of wellness is
that it needs to be as minimal as possible,” added another Accenture source,
“because any time not in production is seen as bad.”
Neither Facebook nor Accenture responded to
questions about these allegations beyond their general denials.
All of this has led to what one source
familiar with the situation described as an “abysmal” mental health climate in
Austin, where moderators are subjected to psychological horrors and then left
feeling disposable and vulnerable. In some cases, the moderators are “poor,
they’re felons, they’re people that don’t have any other options,” said the
source. “They’re uneducated folks. How are we supposed to assume that they know
how to and when to ask for help? Or even that there’s a problem?” But even with
some semblance of financial security and mental health-savvy, this source
doubts that anyone stands a chance in the long term: “No one should have to
consume high levels of content with graphic violence, hate, gore, sexual abuse,
child abuse, brutality, animal abuse, porn, self-mutilation and more at these
rates, without proper mental health resources and advocates, and be expected to
function normally.”
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