Sama, a technology company that has faced litigation in Kenya over the treatment of African content moderators, announced Thursday it will lay off 1,108 workers at its Nairobi office after Meta issued formal notice ending a major service engagement. Sama said it received formal notice from Meta to end “a major engagement at its Nairobi office” and had issued a layoff notice covering all affected employees. The company said it was “actively supporting affected employees with care and respect.”
The mass layoff compounds years of legal and reputational pressure bearing on both companies from a 2022 lawsuit brought by former African content moderators who allege low pay and inadequate mental health support for work that required screening graphic content for hours at a time. A separate 2023 suit seeking $1.6 billion in compensation remains unresolved in Kenyan courts.
The layoffs
Sama said it received formal notice from Meta to terminate the engagement and acted Thursday by issuing the layoff notice. The company did not disclose the timeline for the separations. The 1,108 workers affected had been employed at Meta’s outsourced hub for content moderation in Nairobi, where workers screened posts, videos, messages, and other content from users across Africa, removing material that violated Meta’s community standards and terms of service.
Sama has previously changed its business model in the wake of earlier litigation, stopping its content moderation services for Meta while continuing to provide AI data labeling services to the company. Thursday’s notice from Meta ends that remaining engagement as well.
The ongoing litigation
Meta and Sama have been in court since 2022 after former content moderators accused both companies of paying low wages and failing to provide sufficient mental health support for work that required screening deeply disturbing material.
In 2023, about 200 former moderators filed a separate lawsuit against Sama. In court filings, the moderators — drawn from several African countries — described watching videos of children being molested and women being killed, among other distressing content, for extended hours with insufficient access to mental health counselors. The moderators are seeking $1.6 billion in compensation. That case is ongoing.
Company positions
Sama has previously defended its practices, saying it offered four times the local minimum wage and unlimited mental health support to its workers.
Meta said in a statement that its contractors are obliged to pay their employees above the industry standard in the markets they operate and to provide on-site support by trained practitioners.