Big Tech companies are being probed about the treatment of their “ghost workers” by Democratic lawmakers. Ghost work refers to the undervalued, underpaid, and undersupported human labor utilized to develop and maintain the automation of websites and apps. This work is often outsourced, hidden, or rendered invisible by the tech companies who request it. With the rise of generative AI, this work often includes training and improving algorithms. According to Just Tech, ghost workers are usually vulnerable people from Asia, Latin America and Africa who are being paid less than
A Kenyan court has ruled that Meta is the primary employer of content moderators involved in a lawsuit against the social media giant and is prohibited from laying them off until the case is resolved. In March, the moderators, who worked for Meta’s content review partner, Sama, filed a lawsuit accusing Meta, Sama and a second subcontractor, Majorel, of union-busting operation masquerading as a mass redundancy. Meta sought to dismiss the case, arguing that it was outside the jurisdiction of Kenyan courts. However, the court rejected Meta’s claim and asserted its
Tech giant Meta is being sued by content moderators in Kenya, again. On Monday, 43 content moderators filed a lawsuit accusing Facebook’s parent company and two subcontractors, Sama and Majorel of ‘unlawful redundancy’ and discriminatory hiring practices. Meta had contracted Kenya-based firm Sama to moderate Facebook content in eastern and southern Africa. However, Sama closed its content moderation arm in January and announced it would be laying off 260 content moderators when its contract with Meta ends on March 31. The suit claims that redundancy notices were not issued and that Meta and Sama
A TIME investigation has exposed the horrendous conditions many Kenyan workers had been subject to while working under OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. OpenAI’s toxic working conditions Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI, alongside the recent announcement of the platform’s $29 billion valuation, has sparked speculation. According to a recent TIME investigation, Kenyan workers hired to moderate the platform’s content had been left ‘mentally scarred’ from the harsh working conditions they were exposed to. ChatGPT had reportedly been prone to blurting out violent, sexist, and racist remarks due to being trained
Content moderation on social media has taken a turn for the worse. Meta has announced that their leading subcontractor for content moderation in Africa, Sama, has officially closed. The third-party contractor, contracted by the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, has decided to move away from policing harmful content, resulting in several employees without work permits. Following the announcement, 200 employees from the moderation hub in Kenya – representing approximately 3% of the team – will be let go. The news announced on Tuesday, comes months after Meta was sued in East
