Meta faces complaints from African content moderators in Kenya
The Facebook operator is accused of having exploited and unlawfully fired African clickworkers. Despite meta protests, the lawsuits are admissible.
(Image: Sam Wordley/Shutterstock.com)
Content moderation on social networks is not a harmless job for the employees involved, as images and videos of child abuse, murder, beheadings and cruelty to animals are not uncommon. The associated psychological strain on clickworkers and the business structures of the operators are the subject of current legal proceedings in Kenya, where Meta Platforms, for example, employs hundreds of content moderators via subcontractors.
They apparently wanted to form a trade union to strengthen their rights and obtain psychological support, for example, but were dismissed before this could happen. Meta responded to such complaints in African courts by stating that they were not responsible for a US company, as Meta does not have a branch in Kenya and the employees are not employed by Meta. Content moderation is outsourced to local companies, which would be affected.
Claims for compensation admitted by the courts
However, a few days ago, an appeals court in Kenya ruled that Meta, as the operator of Facebook, was indeed responsible for the content moderators, as the Kenyan Wall Street writes. This means that nothing now stands in the way of the proceedings against Meta Platforms by the former employees of the subcontractor Samasource, which has since been renamed Sama and no longer works for Facebook.
Daniel Motaung from South Africa and 185 other content moderators are demanding compensation as a result of their dismissals after an out-of-court settlement with Meta previously proposed by the court failed to materialize. According to Nation.Africa, the fired content moderators are demanding 10 million Somaliland shillings per person, the equivalent of around 15,600 euros, for unfair labor practices and twice that amount per employee for the violation of their rights.
Psychologically damaging content, misleading offers
According to the plaintiffs, moderating Facebook posts is a strenuous task that is harmful to mental health. According to the constitutional complaint, they were repeatedly confronted with videos and images of beheadings, torture and rape during their work. This led to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a significant number of Facebook moderators. In extreme cases, those affected could no longer work.
Although Meta Platforms was aware of these cases, the African content moderators were not given any psychological support. In addition, the employees were sworn to secrecy and were not allowed to share their experiences with others. The job advertisements were also vague. The interested parties applied for jobs as "quality analysts", for example, so that they were exploited and misled, according to the plaintiff.
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