NAIROBI – We want our money! Follow the court order!
Slogans echo in the business park next to Nairobi Airport early Friday morning. Thirty Facebook moderators have gathered in front of their employer Samasource’s office. Everyone is waving a copy of the Nairobi Labor Court decision.
– The court ordered that our employment cannot be terminated for the time being and that the payment of wages must continue. But we haven’t received our April salaries, that’s why we’re here, says a Nigerian who is shouting at the crowd James Mark Agada.
Since 2019, Samasource has employed around 200 moderators in Nairobi, whose task has been to screen hate speech, sex, violence and other inappropriate content from Facebook’s message stream.
“The worst thing is when you have to watch child abuse”
Most of the moderators have moved to Kenya from other parts of Africa. Their mission has been to protect an audience of about half a billion people in eastern and southern Africa.
The work has been heavy and traumatizing.
– I am a mother of two small children and the worst thing is when you have to watch the sexual and physical abuse of children every day. I don’t think there is anyone among us who is not traumatized by this work, says the South African Sonia Kgomo.
The conditions and contents of the work have been determined according to Facebook’s instructions, but Samasource has been the payer. The moderator’s basic salary has been 60,000 Kenyan shillings, about 500 euros per month.
It is a reasonable salary for Kenyans, but in the opinion of the moderators, it does not even match the demands and workload of the work.
Samasource has organized psychological support for the moderators, but according to the employees, even that has not been professional.
– The advisors sent to us have no experience with the terrible content we have to go through every day. I have often ended up comforting the upset support person myself when I have told them what I have seen in my work, says Sonia Ngomo.
“Are tech giants above the law?”
In 2019, Facebook’s Nairobi Moderators threatened to strike if they didn’t get better pay and working conditions.
Samasource did not agree to the demands. Instead, it dismissed the South African of Daniel Motaungwho led the rebellion movement and was also about to found a professional association of moderators.
Motaung filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Samasource with the support of Amnesty International and Foxglove NGO. He accuses the companies of unfair working conditions, preventing trade union activities and human trafficking.
Foxglove’s manager by Cori Crider according to this, it is not just about one employee and not just about Nairobi and Africa, but about the relationship between the largest technology companies and independent states.
– Can technology giants be above the law in countries where they actually operate? Can Facebook go behind its subcontractor’s back, or does it itself have to answer for its working conditions and actions, Cori Crider asks.
“Facebook must respect Africans”
In January, Samasource announced that it would fire all of its Facebook moderators and give up the moderation business altogether. The Moderators who came from different parts of Africa are in a dead end: no job, no salary, no work permit, no health care.
Facebook has already chosen a new subcontractor in Kenya and new employees have been hired there.
– We have not been wanted there. If you have moderated Facebook before, you will not be able to work for the new company. We want new fools there, says Nigerian James Mark Agada.
Some of the dismissed filed a lawsuit against Samasource and Facebook in the Nairobi labor court. They demand that companies protect their jobs, pay compensation for work-related stress and recognize the right of workers to organize.
At the end of March, the court decided that moderators cannot be fired as long as the case is pending.
When the salaries for April were not paid, the employees went to demand justice from the Samasource office.
The dissenting moderators have bitter regards for Facebook, its parent company Metal, and the CEO To Mark Zuckerberg.
– You have to stop exploiting black people, you have to respect us, says a Ugandan Edward Lubegan message.
“Hate speech is often viral”
Another lawsuit against Facebook supported by Foxglove in Nairobi is related to the bloody war between the Ethiopian government and the province of Tigray, which was fought between 2020 and 2022.
According to Cori Crider, Facebook content was controlled by only 25 moderators during the Tigray crisis, even though Ethiopia has more than 80 languages and a population of 120 million.
– There is no way to keep hate speech under control with this kind of effort. The problem is also that hate speech is often viral. Algorithms favor sensational, violent and untruthful content, says Cori Crider.
In Kenya’s Supreme Court, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is a professor from Tigray Meareg Amaren son.
Professor Amare was not a political actor. However, Facebook posts published in the fall of 2021 said he was on the side of the Tigray rebels. The posts told where the professor lived and incited to kill him.
Amare’s son reported the hate speech to the Facebook system. The comments were not removed until three weeks later, eight days after masked gunmen shot the professor in front of his home in broad daylight.
Some giants are the new colonial powers?
Facebook has appealed the decision, according to which it must answer the charges in the Kenyan judiciary. The legal proceedings will probably be long.
In any case, the reputation of Facebook and its parent company Meta has taken a hard hit in Kenya.
Country director of the human rights organization Amnesty International Irungu Houghon keep in his column (you will switch to another service) Facebook as a new colonial power.
– Imperium means “to rule” in Latin, that is spreading over the territory of others without being responsible for what you do to the local law or people. It’s baffling that owners of social media platforms don’t want to be held accountable for the impact of their business, Houghon writes.
Read and watch the previous articles of the African correspondent:
Aina, Leevi, Ilona, Eino and Hilma – young Namibians proudly bear their names of Finnish origin
Uganda, Kenya and Ghana push sexual minorities into a corner – this is how Kenyan students think about homosexuality
Ylen Aamu direct: Sexual minorities in increasingly cramped conditions in Africa