Landmark case over Internet content moderation

A Kenyan court must decide if it has jurisdiction to hear the case against Meta, brought by Daniel Motaung. Business Insider reports that Motaung is a former employee at Sama, a Kenyan-based company which moderates content on behalf of Facebook. He alleges his working conditions resulted in him getting post-traumatic stress disorder. The case will resume on 22 September. The first test of Daniel Motaung’s lawsuit against Meta, the owners of Facebook, will be when a Kenyan court decides if it has jurisdiction to hear the case against the group at all. Motaung, a South African national, is suing both companies. He alleges his working conditions resulted and the type of content he moderated affected him psychologically. The case, which is being heard in the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi, is far-reaching because it has the potential to bring the issue around the working conditions for content moderators to the fore, says Phumzile van Damme, a former SA lawmaker. In court proceedings and submissions, Meta has only said that as it’s incorporated in Delaware, in the US and in Dublin, Ireland, the Kenyan courts have no jurisdiction over it because they are ‘neither resident nor domiciled in or trading in Kenya’.