Daniel Motaung worked as a moderator for Meta and Facebook until 2019. The employment was not directly with the company, but, as in most cases, with a third-party provider such as “Sama” in Kenya. Motaung has now filed a lawsuit.

Unconstitutional working conditions

Motaung bases the lawsuit, which is directed against Meta and the contractor Sama, on what he believes are unconstitutional working conditions.

At the beginning there was a misleading job advertisement that did not indicate that you would be hired as a Facebook moderator. It also didn't mention that the job could be traumatic. Sama describes itself as an “ethical AI company”.
The fact that Motaung has now been diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and says, "I'm living a horror film" is a result of the numerous disturbing content that he had to watch. These include videos of beheadings and sexual abuse of children, which he now finds difficult or impossible to process. According to Motaung, the psychological support they receive is inadequate. He still has nightmares and is also afraid of being in public. A condition that also doesn't allow him to take on a new job.

In addition, there was irregular and unfair pay (around $2.20 per hour) and violation of privacy. His attempt to unionize with colleagues was stalled as he was fired shortly afterwards. The reason given was that Motaung was accused of harassing and coercing colleagues. Additionally, his actions would “put Sama’s relationship with Facebook at great risk.”

human trafficking

Sama employees were recruited in other countries using misleading job advertisements. In dozens of cases, employees were flown to Kenya under false pretenses, which is why Motaung's lawyers Sama and Meta also accuse Sama and Meta of human trafficking.

“These misleading advertisements intentionally targeted Kenyans and Africans from disadvantaged backgrounds who, after being tricked into a job they did not know they were applying for, found themselves trapped in a dangerous job with no safety net.”

Motaung's lawyers

“It is not okay that we are exploited by large corporations for profit. They come here and say they will save us, only to exploit us and throw us away. I want to put an end to this.”

Daniel Motaung in a telephone interview

The lawsuit

In a letter dated April 21, Meta sought to have his name removed from the case. They are “not liable for any of the allegations made by Motaung’s lawyers in a March letter.” Finally, Motaung was employed by Sama and not directly by Meta, so “no action could be brought against Meta in respect of any rights and/or obligations alleged to be entitled to and owed to the plaintiff in relation to his employment with Sama, since Meta is not his was an employer.”

Motaung's lawyers respond that Sama is an "agent" of Meta, employees use Facebook's internal systems and follow a work schedule set by Meta.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensation from Meta and Sama, to be determined by the court, for all active and former moderators who are or were employed by Sama. Content moderators employed by third-party providers should receive the same psychological protection and support as Facebook employees.
They are also calling for the possibility of unionization to be ensured and for salaries to be aligned with those of Facebook's internal content moderators.

There was already a lawsuit against Facebook in 2018 by moderators who suffered from PTSD. A total of $52 million was paid out to those affected. We reported HERE .

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Source: Time , BasicThinking , Spiegel


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