A Kenyan court is hearing Facebook’s parent company Meta’s bid to stop a lawsuit accusing it of exploitation and poor working conditions, among other things. Meta is attempting to have the case dismissed, claiming that the local employment and labor relations court lacks jurisdiction because it is neither based nor trades in Kenya.
In March, 43 moderators at Facebook’s moderation center in the east African country announced that they had filed a lawsuit against Meta, the platform’s parent company, for wrongful termination.
Mercy Mutemi is the lawyer for former Sama content moderators. She stated this after the court session in Nairobi on Wednesday “The case basically revolves around how they were treated as Facebook content moderators and how Facebook and Sama attempted to terminate their contracts. That is the subject of this case.”
Sama, the outsourcing company that has run the office since 2019, fired over 260 moderators in January.
“One of our claims in the petition is that the moderators who were engaged through Sama have tried seeking alternative employment as Facebook moderators through Majorel (Another outsourcing firm) and the response they are getting is that they are not engaging moderators who previously worked at Sama. So that, the claim that they’re amaking in the court is that that’s discriminatory, and everyone has a right to work, and they should have a right to apply and get equal opportunities for work.” Mutemi explained further.
It is not the first time that Facebook has been involved in a controversy that has resulted in a lawsuit in Kenya. Meta, the social media parent company, was accused of inciting online ethnic hatred and violence in Kenya and Ethiopia in December 2022. A $1.6 billion fund has been established to compensate victims while legal proceedings continue.