How the outcome of Meta’s lawsuit in Kenyan court can change operations of multinational companies in Africa

The parent company of Facebook, Meta, has filed an appeal against the Kenyan court ruling that stated the big tech firm could be sued in the country even though it had no official presence there.

According to a Reuters report, the tech giant had previously made an effort to disassociate itself from a lawsuit filed by a former content moderator alleging unfavourable working conditions by asking that it be dismissed because the plaintiff, Daniel Motaung, is not a member of their staff but rather Sama’s.

The plaintiff, in the lawsuit against Meta and Sama, is seeking financial compensation, an order that outsourced moderators have the same healthcare and pay scale as Meta employees, that unionisation rights be protected and an independent human rights audit of the office.

Meta argued that it is not incorporated in Kenya, only conducting business, and it outsourced its content moderation work via Sama, a U.S.-headquartered company with operations in the East African nation.

Earlier this month, a Kenyan labour court judged that Meta’s point is not solid enough.

Jurisdiction over foreign companies operating in Africa

Some African countries have a law that rules for jurisdiction over foreign companies that are not incorporated. In Nigeria, for example, according to the Section 60(b) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990, a foreign company not registered in Nigeria can sue and be sued in Nigerian courts provided that said the foreign company was duly incorporated according to the laws of a foreign state recognized in Nigeria.

In South African law according to BIICL, South African courts do not have jurisdiction over foreign defendants, even if harm is involved. Jurisdiction can only be either confirmed or founded by attaching the foreign defendant’s assets.

In the USA, it is a whole different ball game, and the ruling is determined by the type of personal jurisdiction; general or specific. There are limited circumstances in which US courts may exercise personal jurisdiction over foreign companies.

So perhaps, Meta did not get the message. because the court case is still ongoing, and the final ruling could affect both parties either way.

If Meta is found guilty of putting employees through poor working conditions, the decision may encourage other technology firms to conduct themselves ethically in Africa to avoid legal action.

It could also end international giants exploiting low-wage workers in the continent and operating with unacceptable labour practices.

However, if the decision is overturned, Meta might sue for defamation. Africa could become the best place for worker exploitation, particularly given the high unemployment rate, and it might entice more foreign businesses to take advantage of this opportunity. This could also lead to a lack of accountability even when outsourced.

Many of these multinationals model their business and platform for western consumers primarily, so they fail to localize their operations and frameworks properly.

Read Also: Meta distances self from “poor workplace” conditions allegation in Kenya

How did Meta Platforms get here?

Trouble had been brewing for Facebook’s parent company Meta and Sama, its former content moderation provider on the African continent, following the Kenyan lawsuit over claims of workers’ exploitation.

It all started ten months ago after a lawsuit was filed by Nzili and Sumbi Advocates on behalf of former content moderator Daniel Motaung and former Sama employees. The tech giant was sued over alleged unsafe and unfair working conditions at Sama’s hub in Kenya and the inhumane treatment of its African contract staff.

However, the case has continued, Meta has reportedly tried to drop out of the case. On the other hand, Sama, the content moderation company that outsources staff, announced later that it would close its content moderation hub in Kenya to streamline its operations.

But that is not all of Meta’s issues regarding content moderation in East Africa. Two months ago, the parent company was sued in Kenya’s High Court for allegedly encouraging hate speech, inciting ethnic conflict, and failing to moderate content in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The petitioners were Kenyan rights group Katiba Institute, Ethiopian researchers Fisseha Tekle and Abrham Meareg, whose father, Professor Meareg Amare, was killed during the Tigray War, weeks after some posts on Facebook incited violence against him. Facebook only removed them eight days after he was killed.

According to that lawsuit, Meta neglected to take adequate precautions on Facebook, which encouraged hateful content and exacerbated tensions around Ethiopia’s deadly Tigray conflict.

But Meta is not the only international tech company mired in lawsuits on African soil.

Read Also: Meta sued over $2 billion for fueling ethnic violence in Ethiopia

Other international companies exploit their African staff

Multinational companies besides Meta have also been charged with mistreating their employees by paying them low wages. TIMES magazine published an investigative report earlier this year on the conditions of Kenyan workers for OpenAI, who train the AI model and moderate its content but are paid less than $2 per hour.

Sama and OpenAI collaborated to contract out this workforce. Sama is a San Francisco-based company with employees in Kenya, Uganda, and India to, help Silicon Valley companies like Google and Meta to label data.

In 2021, the Kenyan Labor Court also ruled against ride-hailing giant, Uber for breaking its agreements with Kenyan drivers. To compel Uber to treat its drivers as employees with benefits rather than independent contractors, a group of South African attorneys joined forces with a UK law firm to file a class action lawsuit against the company in April of the same year.

Why Africa

Africa has the highest unemployment rate thanks to sluggish economic growth, corruption, and other major obstacles hurdling the continent’s success, even though it has the second-largest population. There is also a lack of decent work opportunities and a need for constant job creation to stabilize the economy.

According to a post by Rosa Cherneva, she described how neo-colonization in Africa had an impact. These multinational corporations profiting from using slave labour and other commercial exploitation are the primary obstacle to Africa’s economic development.

With that said, the lawsuit filed in the Kenyan High Court by David Motaung, Meta Platforms, Sama, and others should act as a wake-up call for African policymakers to establish safeguards for how the gig economy is regulated in the continent.

Gig work is increasingly important as a potential pathway to socioeconomic development and unemployment alleviation. Mastercard Foundation anticipates that the African gig economy will employ more than 80 million gig workers by 2030.

Akahi News recommends TechNext for details.