Former Meta contractor Sama to lay off more than 1,000 workers in Kenya

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A company that was sued by Facebook content moderators in Kenya over poor working conditions said Thursday that more than 1,000 workers will be laid off after Meta, Facebook's parent company, ended its contract.

Meta and its local contractor Sama have been in court since 2022 after former content moderators accused them of paying low wages and not offering sufficient mental health support. Sama has since changed its business model and stopped offering content moderation services to Meta, but has remained focused on services such as AI data labeling for the tech giant.

Sama said in a statement Thursday that it received formal notice from Meta to end a “major engagement at its Nairobi office.” Sama said it has issued a formal layoff notice that would affect 1,108 staffers, adding that it was “actively supporting affected employees with care and respect.”

In 2023 some 200 former content moderators sued Sama over the exploitation of workers by offering low pay, little mental health support for the grueling work they do, and long working hours.

The group was employed at the social media giant’s outsourced hub for content moderation in Nairobi, where workers screen posts, videos, messages and other content from users across Africa, removing any illegal or harmful material that breaches its community standards and terms of service.

They described watching videos of children being molested and women being killed, among many other distressing videos, which they moderated for hours on end without sufficient access to counselors.

The moderators, from several African countries, are seeking $1.6 billion in compensation. The case is ongoing.

Sama has previously defended its practices and said it was offering four times the local minimum wage and unlimited mental health support to its workers.

Facebook parent Meta said its contractors are obliged to pay their employees above the industry standard in the markets they operate and provide on-site support by trained practitioners.