Kenyan Court Rules Meta Innocent On Charges Of Court Abandonment

Kenyan labor judge Mathews Nduma Nderi (photo: x @jeremy_magu)

A judge in Kenya on Thursday, December 7, stated that Facebook's parent company, Meta, Platform Inc., was not guilty of neglecting the court for not paying dozens of content moderators fired by its contractors.

Labor judge Mathews Nduma Nderi said Meta was not "intentionally and with the insult" in violation of a court order requiring the payment of hundreds of Facebook content moderators.

"They did various things they thought were legal in trying to deal with the situation, but we didn't find out what they were doing was considered an insult," Nderi said.

Earlier this year, 184 moderators sued Meta and its two contractors after they said they had lost their jobs with one of the companies, Sama, for forming a union. The plaintiffs claimed that they were later blacklisted from applying for the same job in the second company, Majorel, after Facebook replaced the contractor. The settlement talks outside the court collapsed in October.

Spokesperson Meta declined to comment on the ruling. Same and Majorel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Meta previously responded to accusations of a poor work environment in Kenya by saying it needed partners to provide leading conditions in the industry.

Sama mengatakan bahwa mereka selalu mengikuti hukum Kenya dan menyediakan layanan kesehatan mental kepada karyawannya. Majorel mengatakan bahwa mereka tidak memberikan komentar tentang litigasi yang sedang berlangsung.

Nderi menerima permintaan pengacara para pengadang, Merci Mutemi, untuk diberikan waktu 45 hari untuk mengubah petisi pengabaian pengadilan, dan mengatakan bahwa kecuali masalah ini diselesaikan di luar pengadilan, kasus ini akan diberikan prioritas agar pengadilan dapat menentukan kebesarnya.

British technology rights group Foxgloveve, which supports the plaintiffs, said it was eager to bring the case to justice.

"We remain confident in our overall case, as we have succeeded in every substantial point so far," said Foxglove Director Martha Dark. "The most important decision remains the decision we won in June: Meta can no longer hide behind outsiders to give reasons for its exploitation and abuse of content moderators."