Meta faces lawsuits from African content moderators in Kenya

Content moderation on social networks is no harmless job for the employees concerned, as images and videos of child abuse, murder, beheadings and animal cruelty are not uncommon. The associated psychological strain on clickworkers and operators’ business structures is the subject of current legal proceedings in Kenya, where the Meta platform, for example, employs hundreds of content moderators through subcontractors.

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They apparently wanted to form a union to strengthen their rights and receive psychological care, but were fired before this could happen. Meta responded to related lawsuits in African courts, saying they were not responsible for the US company because Meta has no branch in Kenya and the employees are not employed by Meta. Content moderation on the site is outsourced to external companies, which would be affected.

Compensation claims accepted by the court

But a few days ago, an appeals court in Kenya ruled that Meta, as the operator of Facebook, was in fact responsible for content moderation Kenyan writes Wall Street. This means there is no bar to proceedings against Meta Platform by former employees of subcontractor Samsource, which has now changed its name to Sam and no longer works for Facebook.

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South Africa’s Daniel Motaung and 185 other content moderators are seeking compensation for their dismissal after a previously proposed out-of-court settlement with Meta failed. According to Nation.Africa The fired content moderators are seeking 10 million Somaliland shillings per person, the equivalent of about 15,600 euros, for unfair labor practices, and double that per employee for violating their rights.

Psychologically harmful content, deceptive offers

According to the plaintiffs, moderating Facebook posts is a difficult and harmful task for mental health. Oftentimes they were According to the constitutional complaint In the course of their work, they encounter videos and images of beheadings, torture, and rape. This has led to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a large number of Facebook moderators. In extreme cases, those affected can no longer work.

Although the Meta platform is aware of these cases, no psychological support was provided to the African content moderators. In addition, employees were sworn to secrecy and were not allowed to share their experiences with others. Job advertisements are also accordingly vaguely formulated. Interested parties applied for jobs as “quality analysts” and, according to the plaintiffs, were exploited and misled.

the process is called Motaung et al v Samsource Kenya at Meta PlatformPetition E071 of 2022, and is pending before the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

(FDS)