debtAfrica’s largest content moderation provider, acebook, closed its business to the social media giant on Tuesday, almost a year after a Time investigation uncovered low wages, trauma and alleged union busting at its Nairobi office. announced that it would be discontinued.
The company’s Sama is now a co-defendant along with Meta in a Kenyan lawsuit filed by former content moderator Daniel Motaung. Metaung alleges that both companies are guilty of multiple violations of Kenya’s constitution.
Sama denounced the decision as being in the “current economic climate” and said it would mainly result in the layoff of about 3% of Nairobi’s staff.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the termination of the contract in a statement. “We respect Sama’s decision to terminate his review service for the content he provides to social media platforms. We will work with our partners during this transition to ensure that our ability to review content is not impacted. .”
Sama’s contract to review harmful content from Facebook’s parent company Meta was worth $3.9 million in 2022, according to internal Sama documents reviewed by TIME. Sama and Mehta declined to comment on the numbers.
read more: Inside Facebook’s African Sweatshop
Cori Crider, co-director of Foxglove, a legal NGO backing Motaung’s lawsuit against Meta and Sama, criticized both companies in a statement. Meta’s decision to break the deal with Sama just when Facebook moderators were organizing for better terms shows how cowardly they are. appears to be in a frenzy in court for its terrible working conditions, the company moves to hide behind another company. We’ve designed a system that gives them PTSD – and Meta treats them as disposable.”
Crider said Majorelle, a Luxembourg-based outsourcing company, would take over Samah’s contract with Meta, citing workers in contact with Foxglobe. “Employees are reporting to Foxglove that things are even worse at Majorel, the new outsourcer Meta is hiding in. There is no adequate mental health support and the base salary seems to be about half of Sama’s low wage. A spokesperson for Mehta did not respond to a request for comment on whether Majorelle would replace Sama. Majorelle did not respond to a request for comment.
“We know this is going to be a difficult day for everyone at Sama and we are providing several support programs for those affected,” Sama said in a statement to TIME. We understand it’s a difficult day, but we believe this is the right long-term decision for our business.”
“Our strategic vision is to become the #1 provider of computer vision data annotation. To achieve that vision, we have branched out into other adjacent technologies. The situation calls for more efficient and streamlined business operations, so we have refocused our business and chose to focus solely on our computer vision annotation technology platforms and solutions. , which means that from March 2023, we will cease work that does not closely align with that vision, such as our natural language processing and content moderation businesses.”
All affected employees will receive a severance package and “benefits” for 12 months from their last employment date, according to a Sama statement.
read more: Big tech layoffs are hurting workers far beyond Silicon Valley
Samah’s Nairobi content moderation team’s mandate included Ethiopia, where Facebook has been accused of not doing enough to prevent the spread of incitement to violence amid a raging civil war. “We have seen the consequences of the easing of rate cuts in the Ethiopian war and the attacks on Brazilian democracy this week,” Kreider said in a statement. “These crises were fueled by social media and played out where Meta and other social enterprises are cheap and moderate. I can not do it.”
On February 6, a judge is expected to decide whether a court in Nairobi has jurisdiction to continue hearing Motown’s case against Mehta. The social media giant claims the lawsuit should not go forward because it is not traded in Kenya.
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