News
Kenyan vs Meta in landmark Lawsuit
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#Africa, February 15, 2023 – The internet can be a dark place, with anonymity emboldening users to say and post truly vile content, but much of that never makes it to the public sphere thanks in great part to moderators; now a moderator from the largest social media company in the world is suing, he says the job gave him PTSD.
Daniel Motaung who is suing META and its outsourcing company SAMA for worker exploitation in Kenya say not only did the company have inadequate mental health support for workers considering the violent/disturbing nature
Featured in TIME 100 Next for his efforts at justice, Motaung revealed to the magazine that the workers (who TIME says are among the lowest paid in METAs catalogue) must moderate content of the most distressing nature including rapes, suicide, child abuse and more, some moderators have as little as 36 seconds, the interview revealed, no matter how disturbing the content to decide to leave it up or flag it to be taken down.
META tried to wiggle out of the 2022 suit but was collared by Kenyan courts who ruled in early February 2023 that they were ‘proper parties’ to the case. The issue provides insight into the often poor working conditions of workers in the global south subcontracted to these massive tech companies.
Call centres in Jamaica, Customer Service hubs in Manila, Pakistan and many more as well as centres like those that contracted Motaung are used to outsource labour at much cheaper rates than the US and very rarely come with the benefits of employees of the parent companies. Now, Motaung is suing for mental health support as well as similar benefits to the Americans working directly with META and fair compensation, he says, for the damaging work they do.
It’s the first time META is facing a suit like this in the region according to Amnesty International and it could have significant impacts, not just for Africa but the entirety of the Global South