Facebook's Partner in Africa Sama Quits Content Moderation
TimeNov 25, 2022
The Facts
A Kenyan labor court on Monday ruled that Meta, Facebook's parent company, can be sued in the country after a former content moderator filed a lawsuit citing unsuitable working conditions.
Daniel Motaung, a former employee of the content moderation company Sama — which Meta contracted out to review content — claims he was paid $2.20 an hour to review posts whose content included beheadings and child abuse.
The Spin
Establishment-critical narrative
Meta outsources its gruesome content moderation services to faraway countries so that it doesn't have to deal with the consequences. It's high time for the tech giant to provide the workers it treated inhumanely with the same pay and mental health resources it gives to its employees in the US. Motaung was fired after trying to unionize and call for better treatment, so this isn't just about Meta utilizing the lower average wages in third-world countries.
Pro-establishment narrative
Though the common trope is that large companies outsource to other countries to benefit from exploitive labor, the truth is that the wages being paid are almost always at or above the average wage in those nations. When compared to the alternative job opportunities outsourced workers have, it's rarely better than what a US corporation is offering.
