• The Global Trade Union Alliance of Content Moderators (GTUACM) has officially launched.
• The Union features moderators from Ghana, Kenya, Turkey, Poland, Colombia, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia, and the Philippines.
• It is pushing for “stable employment, fair treatment, and real access to mental health support” from social media platforms.

In recent years we have covered the fight by content moderators based in Kenya when it comes to dealing with the scarring posts and videos they had to wade through while being contracted by Facebook owner, Meta.

The fight continues, as moderators in the region are still pushing for fairer treatment and for their concerns about working the type of job that they do and its impact on mental health.

While no resolution has been found, there may be more weight to throw behind such efforts following the launch of the Global Trade Union Alliance of Content Moderators (GTUACM) in Nairobi today.

Per The Verge, the GTUACM is looking to hold big tech firms like Meta, ByteDance (which owns TikTok), Alphabet (which owns Google), and more to account for failing to adequately address issues related to unfair pay and a lack of services to deal with trauma related to moderating content to unrealistic standards and expectations.

“The pressure to review thousands of horrific videos each day – beheadings, child abuse, torture – takes a devastating toll on our mental health, but it’s not the only source of strain. Precarious contracts and constant surveillance at work add more stress,” noted Michał Szmagaj, who is a former Meta content moderator now helping workers to unionise in Poland.

“We need stable employment, fair treatment, and real access to mental health support during work hours,” he emphasised.

Moving forward, GTUACM seeks to offer content moderators a more robust platform to engage meaningfully with big tech firms when it comes to issues affecting large groups, as well as implementing policies that would have an industry-wide impact.

As for the unions that make up the GTUACM, representatives from Ghana, Kenya, Turkey, Poland, Colombia, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia, and the Philippines are already a part, with more being eyed over the coming weeks and months, such as unions from Ireland and Germany.

It remains to be seen what impact this newly formed global organisation can have, but it is clear that events in Kenya in recent years have proved to be the catalyst.

“Kenya has become a global hub for [content] moderation, and we welcome investors to Kenya to invest in this sector, but it must not be against the health of workers in this country,” noted Benson Okwaro, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union of Kenya (COWU).

“That is why we are organizing on the ground and alongside unions worldwide. Together we are sending a clear message to investors in this sector, including Meta, TikTok, Alphabet, and Amazon that moderators everywhere will no longer stay silent while platforms make profit from their pain,” he added emphatically.

At the time of writing, none of the big tech firms mentioned above have issued a comment on the launch of the GTUACM, so it remains to be seen just how seriously the tech industry will take the union’s efforts moving forward.

[Image – Photo by Nick Fancher on Unsplash]