By Ammu Kannampilly and Humphrey Malalo
NAIROBI (Reuters) -A Kenyan court docket dominated on Friday that Fb (NASDAQ:)’s mum or dad firm Meta might be sued within the East African nation over the dismissal of dozens of content material moderators by a contractor.
Final 12 months the content material moderators sued Meta and two contractors, saying they misplaced their jobs with Sama, a Kenya-based agency contracted to reasonable Fb content material, for attempting to organise a union.
They stated they have been then blacklisted from making use of for a similar roles at one other agency, Majorel, after Fb modified contractors.
Out-of-court settlement talks between the moderators and Meta collapsed in October final 12 months.
The case might have implications for the way Meta works with content material moderators globally. The U.S. big works with moderators all over the world tasked with reviewing graphic content material posted on its platform.
Friday’s resolution by the Courtroom of Attraction upheld an earlier ruling by a Kenyan labour court docket in April 2023 that Meta might face trial over the moderators’ dismissals, which Meta appealed.
It additionally upheld a separate ruling in February 2023 that Meta might be sued in Kenya over alleged poor working situations, which Meta additionally appealed.
“The upshot of our above findings is that the appellants’ (Meta’s) appeals … are devoid of advantage and each appeals are hereby dismissed with prices to the respondents,” the judges on the Courtroom of Attraction stated of their ruling.
Meta, Sama and Majorel didn’t instantly reply to Reuters requests for remark.
Meta has beforehand responded to allegations of a poor working setting in Kenya by saying it requires companions to offer industry-leading situations.
Sama has stated it has at all times adopted Kenyan regulation and supplied psychological well being providers to its workers.
Majorel has stated it doesn’t touch upon pending or lively litigation.
“Meta being sued in Kenya is a get up name for all Massive Tech firms to concentrate to the human rights violations happening alongside their worth chains,” stated Mercy Mutemi, a lawyer for the content material moderators.
