Last year, a group of employees working at the IT major Cognizant, filed a class-action complaint against the company and Facebook in a US court, with charges of allegedly causing them psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The court has dismissed the charges filed by the employees on the two companies on account of failure to establish their case by the plaintiffs.
It has also denied pressing any requests for attorneys’ fees by the complainants.
What Was the Case About?
In February 2020, over 3,000 employees working in Cognizant as content moderators for Facebook, filed a class-action complaint against the IT giant and Facebook for exposing them to graphic images leading to psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) .
According to TOI, the complaint claims exceeded $5 million in the aggregate.
Cognizant was sent the initial summons on February 11, followed by the plaintiffs, Debrynna Garrett and her colleague filing a complaint on March 7 and demanding jury trial.
The complainants stated that they were repeatedly exposed to graphic images containing extreme violence and provided claims to support their cases, which consisted of numerous studies conducted by scientific organisations and government task forces.
They charged allegations on Cognizant, of deliberately exposing them to the graphics repeatedly despite knowing the effects of the posed danger, stating “highly toxic, unsafe, and injurious content while providing content moderation services.”
In its response to TOI, Cognizant’s spokesperson states, “We are pleased with the court’s decision to dismiss the claims brought against Cognizant in this matter. We’ve continued to advocate for and support initiatives that will limit exposure to objectionable online content for all users.”