Facebook Faces New Lawsuit Alleging Human Trafficking and Union-Busting in Kenya
https://time.com/6175026/facebook-sama-kenya-lawsuit/
Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, and its largest outsourcing partner in Africa are facing new allegations of forced labor, human trafficking, and union busting in Kenya.
Daniel Motaung, a former outsourced Facebook content moderator, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Nairobi accusing Meta and outsourcing firm Sama of multiple violations of the Kenyan constitution. The lawsuit follows a TIME story published in February titled “Inside Facebook’s African Sweatshop,” in which Motaung and other current and former employees at Sama first gave their accounts of widespread trauma, pay as low as $1.50 per hour, and alleged union busting.
Sama, which describes itself as an “ethical AI” company, fired Motaung in 2019 after he led more than 100 of his Facebook content-moderator colleagues in an attempt to unionize for better pay and working conditions. His dismissal letter said his actions put Sama’s relationship with Facebook “at great risk.”
On the job, for around $2.20 per hour, Motaung says he witnessed disturbing content including violent beheadings and the sexual abuse of children. He now regularly experiences flashbacks and nightmares, and says the requirement to watch videos of innocent people being kidnapped and murdered has left him with severe anxiety in public spaces—and difficulty finding another job. He remains unemployed and was recently diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis shared by many of his former colleagues.