Meta’s east Africa content moderation hub is shutting down, according to a report by Financial Times. The social media’s third-party Sama, that was contracted by owner of Facebook in 2017 to label data and train its artificial intelligence is now laying off around 200 out of their 1,500 employee base.
The Nairobi office were allegedly involved in moderating some of the most graphic and harmful material on Meta’s platforms, including content like beheadings and child abuse.
According to the report, Sama staff were informed on Tuesday morning that the company would now solely focus on labelling work that is also known as “computer vision data annotation” – which includes positioning animations in augmented reality filters.
This decision was made shortly after Sama and Meta were sued for union busting and exploitation. Another lawsuit was also called for Meta to increase its content moderation capacity in Kenya.
Ïn a statement shared by Financial Times, Sama said: “The current economic climate requires more efficient and streamlined business operations.” This was to encourage employees to apply for vacancies at its offices in Kenya or Uganda.
Meta announced that it would be cutting its global headcount by 13%, that is approximately 11,000 employees as it experiencing fierce competition from social media rivals.
The company’s contract ended with Meta at the end of March this year. One particular lawsuit against the contractor was filed by an ex-Sama content moderator from South Africa who accused the two firms of forced labor, human trafficking, unfair labor relations, union busting and failure to provide mental health support to its staff.