Cognizant Sought Low-Paid Laborers to Fill 'Grueling' Content Moderation Jobs: Suit

Cognizant Technology Solutions targeted “historically economically disadvantaged groups” in low-paying labor markets to perform the “grueling job” of social media content moderation, alleged a fraud complaint Thursday (docket 8:24-cv-00045) in U.S. District Court for Middle Florida in Tampa.

Plaintiff Derek Anderson, a Florida resident, met with a “white male employee” of Cognizant in August 2017 for an initial interview for a “process executive” position performing Facebook content moderation, said the complaint. The employee told Anderson he would “possibly see ‘inappropriate’ content," showing an example of a brief video containing images and short clips of “fights or car accidents,” the complaint said.

The employee didn’t show Anderson “extremely graphic” images or warn him that viewing such content would be part of the job, the complaint said. He told Anderson that he would not likely see more than once daily a graphic image of the kind displayed in the video, it said. The employee said Anderson would have all the support he needed to deal with what he saw and would be provided an onsite therapist to meet with "whenever he needed," it said. The plaintiff also was told he would be allowed “wellness time” as needed if he viewed “intense content,” it said.

The interviewer didn’t tell Anderson that he would see “brutal rapes or murders,” said the complaint. He didn’t mention that he would be required to watch “acts of mass murder, cartel executions, sexual assault, pedophilia and child sodomy,” nor did it mention Anderson would be required to view “acts of graphic violence for hours at a time,” it said. The interviewer didn’t mention the work carried a “high risk of acquiring post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological conditions,” it said.

Facebook “contractually required” Cognizant to conduct psychological screenings of new employees, where they would learn the nature of the content moderation job, and it would be determined if they were “psychologically fit for the extreme nature of the job,” said the complaint. The social media company also required Cognizant to provide “wellness” time content moderators could use when they felt “overwhelmed by the emotional toll of the job,” it said. But the wellness time Cognizant provided was “woefully insufficient,” the complaint said. Employees who took more than nine minutes of wellness time were “penalized for an ‘occurrence,’” which could lead to termination, it said.

Cognizant managers “knew the dangers of content moderation,” said the complaint, but they “prohibited” Aetna, one of the companies it contracted with for counseling, “from providing any real counseling services” to Anderson, “thereby concealing such dangers” from him. When counseling was provided, Cognizant used it “for the reprehensible purpose of terminating employees who began to manifest symptoms of psychological trauma,” it said.

Anderson was an “intended beneficiary” of Cognizant’s contract with Facebook, said the complaint. The multiple contract provisions requiring Cognizant to implement requisite workplace safety standards for content moderators was expressly for the benefit of Anderson and other applicants, it said.

Anderson asserts fraudulent misrepresentation and seeks actual and compensatory damages including lost pay, medical expenses, lost future earning capacity, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life, the complaint said. He also seeks exemplary and punitive damages, reasonable litigation expenses and injunctive relief to enjoin Cognizant from conducting business through the unlawful practices described. The plaintiff also filed an application to proceed in court without repaying fees, saying his gross pay at the Florida Department of Children and Families is $1,345.50 every two weeks.

A similar lawsuit was filed against Cognizant in November in the same court (see 2311150021). Cognizant didn’t comment Friday.