META has been accused of human trafficking by a former Facebook employee, according to a new lawsuit.
Daniel Motaung on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company Meta in Kenya.
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The claimant, who is a former Facebook content moderator, is suing the tech giant for human trafficking, forced labor, and union-busting, per an Insider report.
San Francisco-based outsourcing firm Sama – which was hired by Facebook to conduct content moderation – is also being sued, per the suit.
Kenya’s Employment and Labor Relations Court filed the petition, which details the former employee’s role at Facebook, as well as the recruitment process.
Motaung claims that Sama did not tell him he would be working for Facebook or that his responsibilities included monitoring graphic and disturbing content.
In turn, the job gave him – and many of his colleagues – severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Motaung told TIME.
He added that the workplace culture fostered mental trauma, intimidation, and suppression of the right to unionize.
In the lawsuit, Motaung also noted that the job ads were “designed to trick unsuspecting applicants into unknowingly becoming Facebook Content Moderators.”
Under Kenyan law, this amounts to human trafficking, the suit claims.
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A TIME investigation conducted earlier this year found that employees like Motaung are taking home as little as $1.50 an hour.
“Despite their importance to Facebook, the workers in this Nairobi office are among the lowest-paid workers for the platform anywhere in the world,” the report said.
In response to the poor pay and working conditions, Motaung tried to unionize with his fellow colleagues but was fired by Sama in 2019.
Sama said in Motaung’s dismissal letter that his actions put their relationship with Facebook “at great risk”.
“Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies at firms like Sama cannot be allowed to treat people like this,” Motaung said.
“That’s why I’m doing this. We are not animals. We are people — and we deserve to be treated as such.”
Since being fired by Sama, Motaung said he has not been able to find work due to the mental health implications of his last role.
Therefore, while the lawsuit demands financial compensation for Motaung, it also asks that Meta and Sama implement mental-health support for moderators and pay them adequate wages.
“We can’t have safe social media if the workers who protect us toil in a digital sweatshop – we’re hoping this case will send ripples across the continent and the world,” said Cori Crider, the director of the NGO Foxglove representing Motaung alongside Kenyan law firm Nzili and Sumbi Advocates.
“We also hope Daniel’s case will send Facebook a clear message: the days when you can get away with treating your content moderators as disposable and scaring them out of speaking are over,” Crider added.
“Any reform we win here, Facebook can afford to roll out everywhere—and we’ll be pushing to make that happen. It’s past time for Facebook to treat these people with dignity and respect.”
The Sun has reached out to Meta for comment but has not yet heard back.
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