What You Need to Know
Meta has terminated its contract with a Nairobi-based outsourcing firm, putting 1,108 jobs at risk. The company, which has been Meta’s primary partner for ethical AI and content moderation, announced the redundancy process, citing unsuccessful renewal efforts. Support measures for affected employees are in place as the company navigates this transition.
Africa-Press – Kenya. At least 1,108 employees of a Nairobi-based company that does outsourcing work for Meta are set to lose their jobs, the company has announced.
In a notice on Thursday, April 16, the company said Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, has terminated its contract with the Nairobi office.
The contract is set to expire at the end of April, and the efforts of the Nairobi company to engage with Meta on renewal or extension of the contract have been unsuccessful.
“A notice of redundancy has been issued in compliance with Section 40 of the Employment Act 2007, with the necessary notifications to the relevant parties indicating that the redundancy process will affect 1,108 current employees, a significant number of whom are on the specific terminated workstream,” the company said.
In the statement, the company said it remains committed to supporting affected employees through the transition, noting that affected staff have been provided with support measures including living wages, medical cover, wellness resources, and counselling services.
“As is standard in our industry, client programmes evolve, and we work closely with our partners to manage these transitions responsibly. Our immediate priority is supporting our employees through this change and ensuring continuity across our broader operations.”
The Nairobi-based company has been Meta’s primary ethical AI and content moderation partner. For years, it has employed hundreds of Kenyans to review some of the most sensitive and graphic content on Facebook, ranging from hate speech to violent extremism, primarily in local African languages.
Beyond moderation, the Nairobi office became a major center for data annotation, where workers manually labelled massive datasets to train the machine-learning algorithms that power Meta’s news feeds and safety filters.
The partnership was initially framed as “impact sourcing”, aimed at providing dignified digital work to marginalised youth in East Africa.
However, the relationship became the subject of intense international scrutiny following reports of low wages, high-stress environments, and inadequate mental health support for moderators exposed to traumatic imagery.
This culminated in the company announcing its exit from the content moderation business in early 2023, a move that triggered a wave of lawsuits from former employees who alleged they were being blacklisted and unfairly terminated during the transition to new contractors.
The legal fallout from the company’s partnership with Meta set a global precedent for the “gig economy” and digital labour rights. Courts ruled that Meta could be sued locally despite not having a registered office in the country, a decision that challenged the tech giant’s traditional legal shield.
According to investigations by Swedish newspapers, video content recorded by Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses was being reviewed by the company in its Nairobi office for annotation. The revelation picked up by CNN journalist Larry Madowo raised privacy concerns, while others questioned whether Kenya was being used as a test lab for the technology.
The Nairobi office has been a significant player in content moderation for Meta, employing hundreds to review sensitive content in local languages. Initially aimed at providing dignified work to marginalized youth, the partnership faced scrutiny over low wages and poor working conditions, leading to legal challenges and a shift in the gig economy’s landscape. The exit from moderation services in 2023 marked a pivotal moment, raising questions about digital labor rights and corporate responsibility.
