Meta is being sued by dozens of former content moderators employed by Sama, a Facebook subcontractor. They accuse the two companies of “wrongful dismissal” and “anti-union” maneuvers. But Facebook claims that Kenyan justice is not competent to judge this case. This is what his lawyers pleaded during a hearing in Nairobi on Thursday.
With our correspondent in Nairobi, Florence Morice
Should the Facebook company be accountable to Kenyan justice for the actions of its subcontractor Sama? ” No ” ! plead the lawyers of the social network. They claim that Facebook is not registered as a business in Kenya and does not operate in the country. Admittedly, the social network has subcontractors in Kenya, but nothing, according to these lawyers, proves the existence of an “employee-employer” relationship between Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and the plaintiffs.
For their part, the moderators intend to demonstrate that despite this scheme of subcontracting, it is indeed Facebook which, according to them, sets the conditions of their working relationship and that, as such, the web giant is therefore indeed responsible. They also rely on a decision handed down at the beginning of the year by the Kenyan courts in another procedure. The one launched by former moderator Daniel Motaung who accuses Facebook of having ” exploited. »
Here too, Facebook questioned the jurisdiction of Kenyan justice. In February, his arguments were dismissed and an appeal is pending. Thursday, many plaintiffs, former moderators attended the hearing. The hearing was even interrupted by a former moderator, who took the floor to ask to be associated with the complaint. 43 at the beginning, the complainants are therefore now 184.
The judge has promised to deliver his decision on whether the Court has jurisdiction to judge this case against Facebook on Thursday, April 20, a week from now. In total, Meta is the subject of 3 lawsuits, including one filed by two Ethiopians and a researcher claiming that during the war in Tigray, Facebook failed to filter hate speech, and sometimes even encouraged it, thus helping to inflame the conflict.