A Kenyan court found on Friday that Facebook’s parent firm Meta (META.O), opens new tab, could be sued in the East African country for firing dozens of content moderators by a contractor.
Last year, content moderators filed a lawsuit against Meta and two local contractors, alleging they were terminated by Sama, a Kenya-based firm contracted to moderate Facebook content, after organising a union. The moderators claimed they were blacklisted from applying for similar roles at Majorel, another company that took over the contract from Facebook. Out-of-court settlement negotiations broke down in October.
On Friday, Kenya’s Court of Appeal upheld a previous ruling by a Kenyan labor court from April 2023, which stated that Meta could face trial over the moderators’ dismissals—a decision Meta had appealed. The court also affirmed a separate ruling from February 2023, which allowed Meta to be sued in Kenya over alleged poor working conditions.
In their Friday ruling, the three appellate judges stated, “Our conclusion is that the appellants’ (Meta’s) appeals lack merit, and both appeals are dismissed with costs awarded to the respondents.”