Meta Barred by Kenyan Court From Engaging its New Content Moderation Partner – A Kenyan court has temporarily barred Meta from hiring its new content moderation subcontractor, Majorel, pending the hearing of a new complaint filed yesterday by 43 content moderators claiming wrongful termination and blacklisting.
Also, the temporary injunction prohibits Sama, Meta’s former content moderation partner, from engaging in any type of redundancy. The hearing is scheduled for March 28, and in the meanwhile, Sama will provide Meta with exclusive content assessment services.
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This comes as Sama prepares to lay off 260 content moderators serving Eastern and Southern Africa at the end of this month, following the January closure of its content review division. The moderators allege that Sama engaged in wrongful termination and that Majorel engaged in discrimination by blacklisting all of Sama’s former employees.
The petition asserts that moderators applying for jobs at Majorel were “denied on the basis that they previously worked at the 3rd Respondent’s (Sama) facility.” In a petition to the employment and labour relations court, the moderators assert that Sama neglected to provide redundancy notices as required by Kenyan law.
In addition, the lawsuit claims that the moderators were not given a 30-day termination notice and that their final compensation was contingent on their signing non-disclosure agreements. Sama claims that it complied with Kenyan legislation and that the decision to suspend content moderation was disclosed via town hall, email, and notification letters.
Trouble for Sama began after an ex-employee sued it alongside Meta on claims of union-busting that lifted the lid on the working conditions that moderators go through to make social sites like Facebook less toxic.
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