Meta is facing backlash after more than 1,000 content moderators in Kenya were laid off by Sama, a subcontractor that handled moderation work for the company. The workers say they lost their jobs after reporting disturbing content, including users livestreaming sexual acts through Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Sama shut down its content moderation operations entirely, while Meta and Sama dispute the reasons behind the mass layoffs. The workers claim retaliation for speaking up about harmful content they were required to review daily. Meta says the contract ended as planned.
This highlights an uncomfortable reality about AI products. Someone has to train the models and monitor the content, and that work often falls to low-paid contractors in countries with fewer labor protections. The human cost of keeping AI systems and social platforms safe rarely makes headlines.
For Meta's smart glasses, this raises questions about how the company handles content moderation for wearable devices that can record anywhere, anytime. If moderators are seeing sexual content filmed through the glasses, it suggests the privacy concerns critics warned about are already materializing.
The dispute also shows how companies can distance themselves from moderation work by using subcontractors. When things go wrong, it becomes unclear who's responsible for protecting the workers doing some of the most psychologically taxing jobs in tech.
