A few weeks, a case was filed accusing Meta, the parent of Facebook, and its apps/companies, which argued that the American corporation had exploited and abused its content moderators working in Kenya.
According to TechCrunch’s word, Meta wants the case dropped.
And for what reason? – you ask. Facebook has since responded that Kenya does not have the legal wiggle room to determine the case.
There are a few things that should be noted thus far.
First, the case was filed by Daniel Motaung in May this year. His case targeted Facebook and its subcontractor for the region named Sama.
The case filer was motivated to do so once he was fired by Sama sometime in 2019, after, according to Sama, organizing a strike. The strike, ideally, wanted to see the workers become union members.
And that was not all: content moderation is challenging work, and according to him, his work exposed him to violent/graphic content that had a massive toll on his mental health.
To this end, the case filer wants Meta to financially compensate him.
However, according to Meta Platforms Ireland, Daniel Motaung, through his application via the Kenya High Court, does not have the legal authority to demand compensation.
“The Second and Third Respondents (Meta Platforms Inc and Meta Platforms Ireland) are foreign corporations who are neither resident, domiciled nor trading in Kenya, and accordingly this Honorable Court has no jurisdiction over them,” said Kaplan & Stratton senior counsel Fred Ojiambo, on behalf of Meta, as first reported by TechCrunch.
Other issues have since been brought up, including a ‘toxic working environment’ and ‘unfair labour action.’
It is not certain how this case will proceed because it is apparent that Facebook, now Meta, is trying to bury it using all the tools it has at its disposal.
Meta has not had a growing business environment lately. It is battling a lot of cases, including one that mentioned the corporation is planting negative stories about rivals (Tiktok) to influence favour towards them. The company’s former COO Sheryl Sandberg has since left the company after a nearly decade and a half stint with the social media company.
