when david, a The content moderator, who heard his company, Sama, was terminating its contract with Meta, was one of 260 employees who had to start looking for another job. David, who asked not to use his real name for fear of reprisal, has worked for Sama for several years ensuring images of violence, child abuse and sexual exploitation are kept off Facebook and Instagram. He earns about 60,000 Kenyan shillings (US$483) a month.
The role was mentally exhausting, but having David move from his native country to Kenya earned more money than he could have made at home, enough to send some back to his family (he asked WIRED not to disclose his country of origin, making it more difficult to identify him). While David says the job has been difficult, he feels he has developed a unique set of skills that he hopes to use to play a similar role to Majorel, a Luxembourg-based outsourcing company that will take on Meta in Nairobi. Review contracts. Majorel currently has content moderation contracts with Nairobi-based TikTok and Morocco-based Meta. Moderators who spoke to WIRED said Majorel moderators are paid significantly less than Sama.
But despite his vast experience and ability to speak English and popular African languages, David never heard back from Majorel. In fact, none of his colleagues at Sama, many of whom had applied for jobs at Majorel, had been called for interviews or received job offers from Meta’s new contractors.
“There were rumors that Majorel said they were trying to avoid ‘trouble,'” David said. “If you have Sama on your profile, you will never be considered, no matter how qualified or great your work is.”
In 2019, moderator Daniel Motaung attempted to organize a union in Sama, allowing workers to collectively advocate for better working conditions and higher wages. Motaung, who was sacked, claimed in a lawsuit filed in a Kenyan labor court earlier last year that Sama was involved in union-busting and that his working conditions amounted to forced labor and human trafficking. Sama has denied the allegations, while Meta has distanced itself from the case, saying Motaung was not an employee and challenging the jurisdiction of the Kenyan courts.
The new case brought by British nonprofit Foxglove Legal and Kenyan law firm Nzili and Sumbi Advocates on behalf of 43 Sama content moderators, including David, claims that not only were the rumors David and his colleagues heard true, but that Majorel Make it clear to tell recruiters to avoid candidates from Sama. The petition says the termination of Sama’s contract is not a matter of layoffs, as Meta and Sama claim, but a way of punishing workers who organize and speak out. The set names are Sama, Majorel and Meta.
Sama never issued layoff notices, according to filings. The suit also alleges that Majorel’s avoidance of Sama employees constituted discriminatory hiring practices and that Meta directed Majorel not to hire any former Sama employees.
