Meta found liable as court blocks firing of moderators

techcrunch.com:

A Kenyan court has ruled that Meta is the primary employer of content moderators suing the social media giant and its content review partner in Africa, Sama, for unlawful dismissal. The 184 moderators, in the suit filed in March this year, also alleged that Meta’s new content review partner on the continent, Majorel, had blacklisted them on instruction by Meta.

Justice Byram Ongaya of Kenya’s employment and labor relations court on Friday watered down the social media giant’s plan to recuse itself from the case saying the moderators did Meta’s work, used its technology for the work, as well as adhered to its performance and accuracy metrics. The court said that Sama was “merely an agent…or manager.” Sama disputed this, saying “Meta is a client of Sama’s and Sama is not legally empowered to act on behalf of Meta.”

Meta told TechCrunch it disagrees with the ruling and will appeal it.

The latest development is a blow to Meta, which has sought to distance itself from the petition saying that it is not the moderators’ employer.

“The evidence is that the obligation to provide the digital work of content moderation belong to the first and second respondents who provided the digital or virtual workspace for the applicants. The first and second respondents exercise control by imposing the operational requirements and standards of performance. The first and second respondent then provided the remuneration back through the agent [Sama],” the court said.

“The third respondent [Sama] was acting as an agent of the owner of the work of content moderation the first and second respondents [Meta Platforms Inc and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited], there is nothing in the arrangements to absolve the first and second respondents as the primary and