Facebook’s largest content moderation provider in Africa announced on Tuesday that it would “halt” its work for the social media giant nearly a year after a TIME investigation at its Nairobi office found low wages, trauma and alleged union busting.
Sama is currently a co-defendant, along with Meta, in a Kenyan lawsuit brought by former content moderator Daniel Motaung, who claims both companies violated the Kenyan constitution on multiple counts.
Sama blamed the decision on the “current economic climate,” and stated that it would result in the layoff of approximately 3% of its workforce, primarily in Nairobi.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed the end of the contract in a statement. “We respect Sama’s decision to exit the content review services it provides to social media platforms. We’ll work with our partners during this transition to ensure there’s no impact on our ability to review content.”
According to internal Sama documents reviewed by TIME, Sama’s malicious content review contract for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, was valued at $3.9 million in 2022. Sama and Meta declined to comment on the character.
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