NAIROBI, Kenya — At least 1,108 employees at a Nairobi-based outsourcing firm are set to lose their jobs after Meta Platforms terminated its contract with the company, according to a notice issued on Thursday, April 16.
The firm, which has been a key partner for Meta Platforms in content moderation and artificial intelligence operations, said the contract will expire at the end of April. Efforts to secure a renewal or extension have been unsuccessful.
“A notice of redundancy has been issued in compliance with Section 40 of the Employment Act 2007, with the necessary notifications to the relevant parties indicating that the redundancy process will affect 1,108 current employees, a significant number of whom are on the specific terminated workstream,” the company said.
The company added that it would support affected workers during the transition, including providing living wages, medical cover, wellness resources, and counselling services.
“As is standard in our industry, client programmes evolve, and we work closely with our partners to manage these transitions responsibly. Our immediate priority is supporting our employees through this change and ensuring continuity across our broader operations.”
For years, the Nairobi office has served as a major hub for content moderation and data annotation for platforms owned by Meta Platforms, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
Employees were tasked with reviewing some of the internet’s most sensitive material, ranging from hate speech and misinformation to graphic violence, often in African languages that are underrepresented in global moderation systems.
Beyond moderation, the Nairobi centre also became a critical node in the global AI supply chain, with workers labelling large datasets used to train machine-learning systems powering recommendation algorithms and safety filters.
The partnership was initially framed as part of an “impact sourcing” model, aimed at creating digital employment opportunities for young people in East Africa. However, it later attracted international scrutiny over labour conditions.
Investigations and testimonies from former workers raised concerns about low pay, exposure to traumatic content, and inadequate mental health support. The controversy intensified in 2023 when the outsourcing firm exited the content moderation business, triggering lawsuits from former employees.
The legal challenges marked a turning point in global tech accountability. Courts ruled that Meta Platforms could face legal action locally despite not having a registered office in the country—a decision widely seen as a precedent in regulating multinational tech firms operating through third-party contractors.
Further scrutiny emerged following reports that content captured by Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses was being reviewed in Nairobi for annotation purposes.
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The revelations, highlighted by journalist Larry Madowo, sparked debate over data privacy and whether emerging technologies were being tested in African markets with limited oversight.
The termination of the contract raises fresh concerns about the sustainability of outsourced digital labour in Africa, particularly in sectors tied to global tech firms.
Analysts say the layoffs could have ripple effects across Kenya’s growing business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, which has positioned itself as a hub for digital services on the continent.
While the outsourcing firm has pledged support for affected employees, the scale of the job losses underscores the vulnerability of workers in globally integrated but externally controlled digital supply chains.
