A Kenyan court has ruled that Meta can be sued in the East African country over alleged unlawful sacking and blacklisting of content moderators, and dismissed the social media giant’s application that sought to have the case thrown out.
Meta Platforms Inc. and Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. wanted the case nullified on claims that they are foreign companies, and that Kenyan courts lack the jurisdiction to hear and determine petitions against them.
Meta and its content review partners in sub-Saharan Africa, Sama and Majorel, have been sued in Kenya by 183 content moderators. The moderators claim they were fired by Sama unlawfully after it wound down its content review arm, and that Meta instructed its new Luxembourg-based partner, Majorel, to blacklist ex-Sama content moderators.
The court said it has the “jurisdiction to determine the matter of alleged unlawful and unfair termination of employment on grounds of redundancy” by Meta and Sama. It also said it has the…
