Meta is charged with exploitation and union-busting lawsuit in Kenya. The lawsuit seeks financial compensation on behalf of former and current moderators and requests that Sama and Meta stop union-busting and provide mental health help, among other things.
“The many job descriptions (call centre agents, agent, and content moderator) for the position of the content moderator are fraudulent and intended to mislead naïve applicants into unintentionally becoming Facebook Content Moderators.” “Applicants who reacted to the call for ‘Agents’ were notably duped,” Nzuli and Nsumbi’s lawyers stated in a court filing.
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The Core of the Allegation Against Meta
It also implied that content moderators faced unfair job conditions and were not provided with proper mental health care. And that Sama tolerated a “toxic work environment” by prohibiting moderators from discussing the nature of their job and their experiences at Sama with third parties, including Meta’s workers.
“The Respondents (Meta and Sama) purposefully established a poisonous environment in their Nairobi headquarters.” “This is intended to prevent Facebook Content Moderators from airing their issues,” the law firm stated.
The moderators go through social media messages across all platforms, including Facebook, to delete those who spread hate, disinformation, and violence. The legal firm also says that Sama’s employees’ productivity is tracked using Meta’s software, measuring employee screen use and movement during work hours.
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The action follows a Time article that outlined how Sama recruited the moderators under the guise of contact centre positions. According to the report, the salary for content moderators in Africa is the lowest globally. Following the exposé, Sama boosted employee pay.” Content moderators work every day in risky situations to keep Facebook safer for billions of people,” said Mercy Mutemi of Nzuli and Nsumbi, the lead lawyer in the legal action.
“With the August elections so close, there has never been a more critical time to force Mark Zuckerberg to accept responsibility for the individuals on the frontlines of the information battle during the campaign,” Mutemi added.