When David, a content moderator, heard that his company, Sama, was ending his contract with Meta, he became 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, making sure images of violence, child abuse and sexual exploitation don’t appear on Facebook. and Instagram. He earns about 60,000 Kenyan shillings ($483) per month.
This role is psychologically taxing, but allows David to move to Kenya from his hometown and earn more money than he could at home, enough to send some money back to his family (he asked for WIRED does not reveal his country of origin, to make it harder to identify him). And while David says the job is tough, he feels he’s cultivated a unique set of skills that he hopes will land in a similar position to Majorel, the outsourcing company headquartered in New York. Luxembourg-based company will receive a contract to moderate the Meta in Nairobi. Majorel currently has content moderation contracts with TikTok in Nairobi and Meta in Morocco. Who is the operator? talked to WIRED has said that executive salaries at Majorel are significantly lower than at Sama.
But despite his experience and ability to speak English and the African languages requested, David never received a response from Majorel. In fact, none of his colleagues at Sama, many of whom applied for jobs at Majorel, were called for an interview or received an offer from Meta’s new contractor.
“There’s a rumor that Majorel is saying they’re trying to avoid ‘trouble,’” David said. “If your profile has Sama on it, you’ll never be considered, whether you’re qualified or not. How good is the ability?”
In 2019, moderator Daniel Motaung tried to organize a union in Sama to allow workers to come together in favor of better working conditions and higher wages. Motaung was fired, and in a petition with the Kenya labor court early last year, he alleges that Sama participated in the vandalism of the union and its working conditions constituted forced labor and human trafficking. Sama has denied the allegations, while Meta has distanced himself from the case, saying Motaung is not his employee and challenging the jurisdiction of the Kenyan courts.
A new lawsuit filed by UK-based nonprofit Foxglove Legal and UK-based law firm Nzili and Sumbi Advocates on behalf of 43 Sama content moderators, including including David, alleging that the rumors David and his colleagues heard were not only true but also clearly Majorel’s. told her recruiters to avoid candidates from Sama. The petition alleges that terminating Sama’s contract is not, as Meta and Sama said, a matter of redundancy, but rather a way to punish workers for organizing and speaking up. . The suit has the names Sama, Majorel, and Meta.
According to the filing, Sama never issued a backup notice. The lawsuit also alleges that Majorel, in avoiding Sama employees, engaged in discriminatory hiring practices and that Meta instructed Majorel not to hire any former Sama employees.
