Kenya Court Reportedly Halts Mass Facebook Layoff Amid Moderators Scandal

Meta’s* Kenya-based outgoing content moderation partner Sama announced its plans in January to lay off 260 Facebook* content moderators at the end of March following the shutdown of its content review arm.

A Kenyan court blocked the firing of 260 Facebook content moderators in Nairobi on Tuesday amid an ongoing legal battle for violation of working conditions, media has reported.

Judge Matthews Nduma reportedly granted a temporary injunction against Meta, Facebook's parent company, and Sama, prohibiting the termination of contracts of its employees at the end of this month. The interim injunction barred Sama from effecting any form of redundancy.

Sama stated that the company did not have a chance to defend itself in court, but would obey its decision. However, there was no immediate response to the interim injunction from Meta or Facebook.

"This judgment was issued without Sama being able to participate or correct any of the facts. We had no intention of laying anyone off prior to the end of March in any case, and will certainly abide by any directives issued by the court," the company is quoted in the report as saying.

The injunction barred Meta from engaging its new content moderation outsourcing partner, Majorel, and subcontracting the roles of workers who moderate Facebook content for eastern and southern Africa. It also banned Meta and Majorel from blacklisting content moderators on the basis that they used to work at Sama.

On Monday, 43 Kenya-based Facebook* moderators filed a lawsuit against Meta and Sama for allegedly unfair and illegal dismissal and blacklisting. The employees claimed that they had been fired for trying to organize a union. They were also prohibited from applying for the same positions at Majorel.

Last month, a Kenyan labor court ruled that Meta could be sued in the East African country on charges related to forced labor, human trafficking, and union busting, following its former moderator's lawsuit. In a lawsuit filed on May 10 last year, Daniel Motaung, who worked for Sama, accused Meta, along with its largest outsourcing partner in Africa, of union busting, forced labor, wage theft, racial discrimination, unequal pay for equal work, and other human rights violations.

* Meta and Facebook are banned in Russia over extremist activities