Out-of-Court Settlement Talks Between Meta, Kenyan Content Moderators Reportedly Fail

Out-of-court settlement talks between Meta, Facebook's parent company, and two subcontractors with Kenyan content moderators who filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination of their employment have failed, media reported, citing a tech rights group working with the plaintiffs.

Earlier this year, 184 Kenyan content moderators sued Meta and two subcontractors after they allegedly lost their jobs at one of the subcontractors, Sama, a US company that used to moderate content for Meta's social platform Facebook, for organizing a union. They say they were then blacklisted from applying for the same jobs at a second company, Majorel, after Facebook switched contractors.

The court gave the parties three weeks to engage in out-of-court settlement discussions, stating that the 21-day period provided would allow Meta and the content editors to reach an amicable agreement and avoid a trial.

The group, which is working with the Kenyan content moderators, argued that Meta and its subcontractors were making "very little attempt to address core issues raised by the petitioners".

Around 260 employees at Facebook's moderation center in Nairobi, Kenya, were laid off earlier this year when the internet giant switched its moderation supplier from US company Sama, which it had been working with since 2019, to European company Majorel.

Sama attributed its decision to discontinue moderation services and part ways with Meta to a difficult economic situation and changing business requirements.

At least 184 of the dismissed workers filed a joint lawsuit against Meta and Sama, claiming that the dismissal decision was unlawful because no legitimate or reasonable explanations were given for the dismissals.