Meta contractor dismissed threats to moderators by Ethiopia rebels: court documents

Sama Resources

10/12/2024 07:10

* 
      Meta accused of ignoring rebel threats to Ethiopian
moderators,
court documents say
    

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      Moderators say Oromo Liberation Army threats came after
they
removed rebel Facebook posts
    

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      Moderators say they lost jobs and were blacklisted
    

  
    By Ammu  Kannampilly
       NAIROBI, Dec 10 (Reuters) - A contractor hired by
Facebook's parent company Meta  META.O  dismissed threats to
content moderators by Ethiopian rebels angered by their work,
according to new evidence filed in a case challenging the
dismissal of dozens of moderators in Kenya.
    Last year 185 content moderators sued Meta and two
contractors, saying they had lost their jobs with Sama, a
Kenya-based firm contracted to moderate Facebook content, for
trying to organise a union.
    They said they were then blacklisted from applying for the
same roles at another firm, Majorel, after Facebook changed
contractors.
    Moderators focusing on Ethiopia said they were targeted by
members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebel group for
removing their videos but their complaints were dismissed by
Sama, according to court documents filed on Dec. 4 by Foxglove,
a British non-profit supporting the moderators' case.
    The moderators said in the petition seen by Reuters that
Sama had accused them "of creating a false account and
manufacturing" the threatening messages, before eventually
agreeing to an investigation and sending one of the moderators
who was publicly identified by the rebels to a safehouse.
    Sama told Reuters it was unable to comment on the
allegations. Spokespeople for Meta and OLA did not respond to
requests for comment.
    Moderator Abdikadir Alio Guyo said in his affidavit that he
had received a message from OLA threatening "content moderators
who were constantly pulling down their graphic Facebook Posts". 
    "They told us to stop removing their content from Facebook
or else we would face dire consequences," he said, adding that
his supervisor dismissed his concerns.
    Another moderator, Hamza Diba Tubi, said in his affidavit
that he received a message from OLA listing his and his
colleagues' names and addresses.
    "Since I received that threatening message, I have lived in
so much fear of even visiting my family members in Ethiopia," he
said.
    The government of Ethiopia's largest region, Oromiya, has
accused OLA rebels of killing "many civilians" in attacks that
followed the failure of peace talks in 2023 in Tanzania aimed at
resolving a decades-old conflict.
        
    'ENDLESS LOOP OF HATEFUL CONTENT'
    The court documents also said that Meta ignored advice from
experts it hired to tackle hate speech in Ethiopia.
    Alewiya Mohammed, who supervised dozens of moderators, said
in an affidavit that she felt "stuck in an endless loop of
having to review hateful content that we were not allowed to
take down because it technically did not offend Meta policies".
    Out-of-court settlement talks between the moderators and
Meta collapsed in October last year.
    The case could have implications for how Meta works with
content moderators globally. The U.S. giant works with
moderators around the world tasked with reviewing graphic
content posted on its platform.
   The OLA is an outlawed splinter group of a formerly banned
opposition party. Its grievances are rooted in the alleged
marginalisation of Ethiopia's Oromo community.
    In a separate case filed in Kenya in 2022, Meta was accused
of letting violent and hateful posts from Ethiopia flourish on
Facebook, inflaming the civil war between the federal government
and Tigrayan regional authorities.

 (Reporting by Ammu Kannampilly)
 ((Ammu.Kannampilly@thomsonreuters.com;))