Earlier today, American social media giant meta and its main content audit subcontractor in Africa, Sama, were sued for labor exploitation and union sabotage Daniel Motaung, a representative of a law firm, a former content auditor and Facebook whistleblower, was allegedly fired for organizing a 2019 strike and trying to unionize subcontractor employees, claiming that meta and SAMA "subjected current and former content auditors to forced labor and human trafficking".
The law firm said in its application that SAMA had also conducted a "deceptive recruitment process" and that the open vacancies did not mention the nature of the work that successful applicants would engage in.
"The different descriptions of the position of content auditor (call center agent, agent and content auditor) are deceptive and are designed to deceive unsuspecting applicants into becoming Facebook content auditors without their knowledge. The defenders of nzuli and nsumbi said in the case submitted to the court:" applicants driven by 'agents' are particularly deceived. "
It also suggests that content auditors are affected by unfair labor relations and do not receive adequate mental health support.
"The defendants (meta and SAMA) deliberately created a toxic environment in their Nairobi office." "The purpose of this is to prevent Facebook content moderators from expressing their dissatisfaction," the law firm said
These reviewers filter social media posts on all their platforms, including Facebook, to delete posts that commit and perpetuate hatred, misinformation and violence. The law firm also claims that the productivity of SAMA's employees is tracked through meta's software - Measuring employees' screen time and actions during working hours. Moreover, they allow a "toxic working environment" that prevents moderators from sharing the nature of their work and their experience in SAMA with third parties.
The lawsuit follows a report in time magazine detailing how SAMA recruited moderators under false pretexts that they were working in a call center. The time article also said that the salary of content auditors in Africa is the lowest in the world. Sama's salary was raised after the company's employees were exposed.
"Content auditors are fighting for more security for Facebook's billions of people every day under dangerous conditions," said mercy mutemi of nzuli and nsumbi, who is also the chief lawyer of the legal action. "As the August election approaches, this is the most important moment to force Mark Zuckerberg to take responsibility for the people on the front line of information warfare during the game."
In previous reports on this issue, meta put aside the relationship and said Motaung was not its employee, while SAMA denied these claims.