Lawyers are probing “dire” workplace conditions for Meta content moderators in Ghana, attorneys involved in the investigation told Agence France-Presse, in what could turn into the latest dispute over the social media giant’s labor practices in Africa.
Content moderators including those in Ghana have long had to contend with a harrowing work environment as they scrub posts containing child abuse and even murders from sites like Facebook and Instagram.
However, legal experts at Accra-based consultancy Agency Seven Seven and London-based nonprofit Foxglove are investigating allegations that moderators have had to view “distressing” and “bloody” content, including sexual assault, without adequate mental healthcare — as well as accusations that workers have been sacked for trying to unionize.
Photo: AFP
“What we are talking about here is potential psychological injury,” said Carla Olympio, founder and managing partner at Agency Seven Seven, who has met with workers in the past few weeks.
“Everyone is suffering in terms of their mental health — whether that’s post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, depression, suicidal thoughts and more,” Foxglove founder Martha Dark told AFP. “The situation is pretty dire.”
The probe follows multiple labor-related lawsuits launched in the past few years over conditions at the Facebook and Instagram parent company’s now-shuttered content moderating hub in Nairobi, Kenya.
That center — like the hub in Ghana — was run by a third-party contractor, not Meta itself.
Another suit in Kenya alleges that Facebook’s algorithm amplified hate speech in neighboring Ethiopia, with deadly consequences.
The Nairobi hub shut down in 2023, although the lawsuits are still ongoing, but the establishment of a new content moderation center in Ghana had been until recently kept secret by Meta.
The lawyers say that about 150 content moderators work in the Ghanaian capital for Majorel, a firm owned by Paris-headquartered tech contractor Teleperformance, which is paid by Meta for content moderation.
One worker in Accra, who moved to Ghana from east Africa, told the Guardian that his work as a content moderator drove him to attempt suicide.
Employer-provided housing requires workers to share rooms, Dark said, while low base pay and an “opaque” salary structure incentivizes moderators seeking bonus pay “to look at more and more content.”
Neither Teleperformance nor Meta responded to AFP’s request for comment.
A Teleperformance spokesperson told the Guardian that the company has “robust people management systems and workplace practices, including a robust well-being program staffed by fully licensed psychologists.”
It also defended what it called “strong pay and benefits.”
Meta told the newspaper that it took “the support of content reviewers seriously.”
Foxglove is also involved in the lawsuits in Kenya, where it alleges the Nairobi hub illegally fired workers after they moved to unionize and voiced similar concerns about the mental health harms faced on the job.
There is a way for content moderators to do their job safely, Dark said, citing limits in Ireland on the amount of content police investigating child abuse can be exposed to, as well as the provision of “proper psychiatric care.”
AFP is involved in a partnership with Meta providing fact-checking services in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.
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