Silicon Savanna: The workers taking on Africa's digital sweatshops
This story was updated at 6:30 ET on October 16, 2023
Wabe didn’t expect to see his friends’ faces in the shadows. But it happened after just a few weeks on the job.
He had recently signed on with Sama, a San Francisco-based tech company with a major hub in Kenya’s capital. The middle-man company was providing the bulk of Facebook’s content moderation services for Africa. Wabe, whose name we’ve changed to protect his safety, had previously taught science courses to university students in his native Ethiopia.
Why did we write this story?
The world’s biggest tech companies today have more power and money than many governments. This story offers a deep dive on court battles in Kenya that could jeopardize the outsourcing model upon which Meta has built its global empire.
Silicon Savanna: The workers taking on Africa's digital sweatshops
This story was updated at 6:30 ET on October 16, 2023
Wabe didn’t expect to see his friends’ faces in the shadows. But it happened after just a few weeks on the job.
He had recently signed on with Sama, a San Francisco-based tech company with a major hub in Kenya’s capital. The middle-man company was providing the bulk of Facebook’s content moderation services for Africa. Wabe, whose name we’ve changed to protect his safety, had previously taught science courses to university students in his native Ethiopia.
Why did we write this story?
The world’s biggest tech companies today have more power and money than many governments. This story offers a deep dive on court battles in Kenya that could jeopardize the outsourcing model upon which Meta has built its global empire.
