Kenya: Facebook, Youtube & TikTok content moderators form labour union to push for better working conditions
"Facebook, Youtube and TikTok content moderators in Kenya form labour union"
Kenya-based content moderators working for Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Chat GPT have established a labour union to push for better working conditions. The formation of the union comes on the backdrop of a lawsuit filed by 184 Facebook content moderators in Kenya who were sacked in January. They sued the social media company's parent firm Meta for unfair dismissal. At a meeting held in Nairobi on Monday, 200 content moderators from Sama and Majorel -- the firms that serve Facebook, Youtube, TikTok and Chat GPT -- took a stand against tech giants’ mistreatment of their workers by coming together to lobby for their rights...
In a first-of-its-kind event, moderators covering 14 different African languages came together on Labour Day to vote for establishing a union to address issues including mistreatment of workers. Daniel Motaung, a former content moderator who got fired after trying to lead the unionization effort, told the Nation that content moderation is in a state of crisis and that "content moderators are paying for it with their lives". "They serve as the first line of defence against harmful content, yet they face hazardous work conditions without hazard pay. Mental health support is severely lacking, job security is scarce, and some moderators feel silenced by strict non-