• A suit against Meta in the Kenyan Employment Court will continue, according to a ruling by a judge in the East African country.
• Meta tried to throw out the suit, launched by 260 African content moderators over claims that they were treated unfairly during their termination.
• Meta’s argument was that they didn’t have operations in Kenya, but the judge ruled that even virtual communications would count in court.

The Employment Court in Kenya dismissed an application by Facebook owner Meta that sought to remove a petition launched by 260 content moderators suing the American firm over claims they were fired unfairly.

Meta Platforms Inc. and Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. argued that courts in Kenya lacked jurisdiction to pass judgement on the matter as they are companies that do not operate in the East African country, reports Business Daily Africa.

The content moderators are claiming that they were fired unlawfully after Samasource Kenya EPZ (Sama), one of Meta’s content review partners in sub-Saharan Africa, laid them off.

Meta, who owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as Sama and another moderator Majorel Kenya, are all being sued by the content moderators in a messy whirl of claims.

Let’s break it down: The content moderators, who are from many different African nations, were working for Sama as moderators for Meta. But then Meta terminated its contract with Sama, which led to Sama letting the moderators go. Now, Meta is alleged to be planning to hire new moderators do the same thing through Majorel.

TechCrunch writes that the plaintifs further allege that Majorel, which is based in Luxembourg, was instructed by Meta to blacklist ex-Sama content moderators.

Sama also allegedly failed to issue notice periods to the moderators, and their severance packages were held until the moderators signed non-disclosure agreements, or so it is claimed.

Meanwhile Sama argues that it did in fact adhere to Kenyan labour laws, and that it communicated the decision to lay off the 260-something employees via a “town hall meeting,” emails and notififcation letters.

Meta launched a plea to the Kenyan court, hoping that the suit would be struck down. It argued that since the companies, including itself, Majorel and Sama, do not have physical presences in Kenya, they were exempt from Kenyan jurisdiction.

Justice Mathews Nduma rejected this application, saying that the dispute revolves around the employer-employee relationship and it doesn’t matter whether the alleged violations occured in a physical or virtual space in Kenya.

And seeing as the communications between the moderators who are in Kenya, Sama and Meta all occurred virtually, the case will continue forward.

“The court will consider the nature and extent of liability with regard to the alleged breaches and violations of the Constitution arising and or related to employment and Labour relations in Kenya,” Nduma said.

Near the end of last year, Meta was also being sued in Kenya over allegations that its Facebook platform was used to fuel political violence during the Tigrayan civil war in Ethiopia.

[Image – Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash]