The Floor That Watched — TIME, Sama, and a Petition

February 2022

TIME published "Inside Facebook's African Sweatshop." Daniel Motaung, photographed near a home in South Africa, alleged Sama wrongfully terminated him in 2019 while he was attempting to start a union. Payslips in the investigation: foreign employees about 60,000 Kenyan shillings a month pre-tax, around $528, including a relocation bonus; after tax about $440, roughly $2.20 an hour on a 45-hour week. Kenyan staff, without the bonus, about $1.46 an hour after tax. Sama's late founder, Leila Janah, in a 2018 BBC interview the piece revived: not paying wages that would distort local labor markets.

I am not going to reconstruct a queue of graphic work. I will say the job included categories TIME and later petitions named: violence, sexual abuse of children as a category of content, suicide, war. I will not describe the frames. Frames are a gift shop I will not open. Categories are a docket.

Motaung's dismissal letter, in TIME's later lawsuit walk, said his actions put Sama's relationship with Facebook at great risk. May 10, 2022: Reuters dated a petition in Nairobi against Meta and Sama — unreasonable conditions, irregular pay, inadequate mental health support, union-busting, privacy and dignity. Foxglove. Nzili and Sumbi. Human-trafficking theory: misleading job ads, workers flown from elsewhere in Africa under pretenses, TIME said, that did not warn them they would moderate Facebook.

I printed the TIME pages. I put them on the sideboard. Frieda asked if it was a bill. I said it was a floor. She said a floor that watches is a story. I said a story that is a payslip is a fact. She pumped sanitizer. The ethanol was honest.

The Raise That Was Not a House

March 1 after the story: Sama told Facebook moderators in Kenya they would get 20,000 shillings extra a month, a 30-to-50-percent raise in TIME's walk, lowest take-home near 50,000 shillings, about $2.20 an hour on a nine-hour day, plus a promised thirteenth month. Motaung said it would make a difference and would not change their lives. I am keeping both sentences. Raises are kitchens. Houses are what a narrative promised.

Dina asked if the jar at the clinic was "like that raise." I said a jar is a jar. She put a five in it. I did not take a note.

September 20, 2024

Court of Appeal at Nairobi, [2024] KECA 1262 (KLR), consolidated Civil Appeals E232 and E445 of 2023: Meta Platforms, Inc. and Meta Platforms Ireland against Motaung and 186 others. The court held Kenya could hear the petitions. I am not going to tour every article of the Constitution the petition listed. I am going to say jurisdiction is a door, and that a parent company that sells a borderless platform can still be asked to sit in a room that has a stamp.

April 2026 weather: the Employment and Labour Relations Court ordered senior officials linked to Meta and contractors to testify — Laura O'Hanlon named in local walks as Director of Scaled Regulatory Response and WhatsApp Operations. I will label those walks as walks. Walks are not the judgment. The judgment is 2024's door.

What I Will Not Open

I will not open a frame. I will not typeset a wellness kit. I will say TIME named categories and a payslip and a dismissal letter, and that a petition named irregular pay and inadequate support and union-busting, and that a trafficking theory named misleading ads. Theories are captions. Captions are not verdicts. KECA 1262 is a door. Doors are this book's religion.

Ross cuts hair in a chair that pumps. He asked if I wanted it shorter. I said I wanted it honest. He said honest is a number 4. He cut. A television played a face. He turned it to a game. Games have scores. Dashboards have flexibility. I liked the game more than the face.

Distortion, Spoken as a Founder's Sentence

Janah's 2018 sentence — not paying wages that would distort local labor markets — is a theology I want a reader to sit with next to $1.46. Distortion is a word that means a Tuesday should not rise. Rising is what a raise did after a magazine. Magazines are not statutes. Payslips are kitchens.

Flint sells a single screw. I asked him for a battery door because a laptop had become a joke I did not want to keep telling. He sold me a door. He asked if I was building a robot. I said I was unbuilding a queue. He said then the screw is honest. Screws are tools.

May 10, 2022, Lined

Reuters: one person on behalf of a group. Compensation. Same health care and pay scale as Meta employees, in the ask. Unionization rights. Independent human rights audit. Sama declined to comment before seeing the lawsuit and had previously rejected claims about pay. I am lining the ask so a raise cannot eat a petition. Raises are March. Petitions are May.

Sable sells plants that die if you do not water them. I asked if a photograph of a plant was a plant. She said a photograph is a wish. I said wishes are dashboards. She said then water. I did not buy a fern. Ferns are not metaphors.

PTSD as a Diagnosis I Will Not Tour

Motaung, in TIME's lawsuit walk, was later diagnosed with PTSD; the piece said the diagnosis was shared by many former colleagues. I will not invent a 140-person comparison. I will say a named person had a named diagnosis in a named magazine, and that many is not a study I will upgrade. Many is a weather. Weather is not a tote.

January 18, 2023, is a different TIME kitchen. Billy Perrigo. ChatGPT had been public a week and a million users, in that walk's weather. OpenAI, the piece said, used outsourced Kenyan laborers earning less than $2 an hour to make the chatbot less toxic. Sama again. San Francisco firm. Kenya, Uganda, India. Clients the piece named: Google, Meta, Microsoft. Ethical AI, in Sama's marketing. More than 50,000 people lifted out of poverty, in Sama's claim. I will not audit 50,000. I will say a claim can share a page with a payslip.

Beginning November 2021: tens of thousands of text snippets to Kenya. Three contracts, documents TIME reviewed, about $200,000, late 2021, to label textual descriptions of sexual abuse, hate speech, and violence. Around three dozen workers, three teams, one subject each. Worker mouths: 150 to 250 passages per nine-hour shift, snippets from about 100 words to well over 1,000. Sama's mouth: 70 passages per nine-hour shift, not up to 250. I am keeping both mouths. Counts move. Shifts persist.

Take-home, in TIME's arithmetic from payslips and three employees: $1.32 to $2 an hour depending on seniority and performance. Agents, the junior majority: 21,000 Kenyan shillings a month, about $170, plus about $70 as an explicit-content bonus, plus commission for accuracy and speed. After tax, on nine-hour shifts: at least $1.32, up to $1.44 if they hit every target. Quality analysts: up to $2 if they hit targets. Nairobi receptionist minimum at the time, in TIME's parenthetical: $1.52 an hour. There is no universal minimum wage in Kenya, the piece said. I am lining $1.32 next to $1.52 so a bonus for explicit work can sit under a receptionist floor.

Sama's mouth: workers could earn $1.46 to $3.74 after tax; the spokesperson declined to say which roles sat at the top; the $12.50 OpenAI paid Sama per hour "covers all costs, like infrastructure expenses, and salary and benefits for the associates and their fully-dedicated quality assurance analysts and team leaders." OpenAI's mouth: it did not issue productivity targets; Sama managed payment and mental health; previous understanding was wellness programs, 1:1 counseling, opt-out without penalization, a limit on exposure, sensitive work handled by people specifically trained. Workers' mouths: wellness unhelpful and rare because of productivity; two said only group sessions; one said one-to-one requests were denied. Sama: incorrect; individual and group with licensed therapists, accessible at any time. I am leaving every mouth in the room. Collapsing is how a thread dies.

OpenAI paid Sama $12.50 an hour. Six to nine times the take-home, in TIME's weather. I am putting $12.50 here so Chapter 7 cannot invent a pass-through. Pass-throughs are costumes. Costumes are this book's beat.

I will not open a snippet. I will not reconstruct a vision. I will say the categories were named, that four employees described being mentally scarred, that one described recurring visions after graphic text, and that "that was torture" is a sentence in a magazine, not a diagnosis I will tour. Partnership on AI, a coalition OpenAI belongs to, said a growing body of research shows precarious conditions, and that hiding the labor when celebrating efficiency is how out of sight becomes out of mind. OpenAI, the piece said, does not disclose the names of the outsourcers it partners with.

February 2022: a separate image-collection pilot, unrelated to ChatGPT in TIME's walk. A billing document: a sample batch of about 1,400 images; some categorized under OpenAI's internal labels for illegal and graphic material. OpenAI paid $787.50 for collecting the images, the document showed. I will not typeset the labels as a gallery. I will say Sama's East Africa team raised concerns; Sama said the agreement had not referenced illegal content and that additional instructions arrived after work began; Sama ended the image pilot and cancelled remaining OpenAI projects, eight months early; individuals were terminated and new sales vetting put in place, in Sama's mouth. OpenAI: it received the batch; it never intended the most restricted category to be collected; it instructed employees to actively avoid it; after Sama said they had attempted to collect that category, OpenAI said there had been a miscommunication and that it did not want that content; after realizing the miscommunication it did not open or view the content and could not confirm the category. I am keeping the intending, the not-opening, and the East Africa concern in one room. Sides are hats. Paragraphs are this book.

Workers were called into an HR meeting in late February 2022. Told Sama did not want to expose employees to such content again. One reply, in TIME: it was a way to provide for our families. Most of the three dozen moved to lower-paying streams without the $70 bonus; others lost jobs. Last labeled batch to OpenAI: March. Because the contracts ended early, the $200,000 was not paid in full. OpenAI: about $150,000 over the course of the partnership.

Four employees said managers also blamed TIME's February 14 Facebook investigation. Internal communications, TIME reviewed: Sama executives in San Francisco scrambling; a Lufthansa subsidiary asked that its relationship be scrubbed from Sama's site and then terminated the business. February 17: CEO Wendy Gonzalez, Slack, to senior executives: "We are going to be winding down the OpenAI work." I am dating the Slack so a raise cannot eat a cancellation, and so a cancellation cannot eat a Facebook floor. Two kitchens. One vendor. Three days.

January 10, 2023 — still before the ChatGPT piece ran — Sama announced it was exiting all remaining sensitive-content work, would not renew a $3.9 million Facebook content-moderation contract, some 200 jobs in Nairobi. Strategic decision to exit NLP and content moderation, focus on computer vision; exit complete as of March 2023. I am leaving the 200 here and again in Chapter 5. Company mouth. Hub weather. Not a coin with 183 or 1,108.

Ross turned a game on. I walked. Hair on a cuff. Ione would wipe. I did not ask her to. Amos wrote $12.50 ≠ $1.32 and $200k ≠ $150k and Feb 14 ≠ Jan 18. He said steal those. I stole them.

Conflict of Laws, walking the file: as the case progressed, the court ruled that Sama should continue to pay moderators and stop redundancies, and that Facebook should provide medical, psychiatric, and psychological care for Facebook content moderators. I am putting the care order here so a wellness slide cannot eat a stamp. Stamps are Lora. Slides are Pax. I will not typeset a counselor. I will say a court can name a care, and that naming is not a house, and that a raise after a magazine is still Chapter 4's March and not this order.

Reuters, September 20, 2024: the Court of Appeal dismissed Meta's appeals with costs to the respondents. It upheld an April 2023 labour-court ruling that Meta could face trial over the dismissals. It upheld a February 2023 ruling that Meta could be sued in Kenya over alleged poor working conditions. Two earlier doors. One Friday. "Devoid of merit," in the judges' mouth. Meta and Majorel did not immediately comment, in that walk. Sama was reviewing. Meta has previously said it requires partners to provide industry-leading conditions. Majorel: no comment on pending litigation. Mutemi: a wake-up call for Big Tech to pay attention to human-rights violations along value chains. Martha Dark, Foxglove: Meta had run out of road; they would support the 185 every step to the courtroom. I am leaving 185 next to 183 and 184. Counts move. The door is 1262.

Some walks put the 183-or-185's ask at $1.6 billion. I will not upgrade an ask to an award. I will say a billion is a weather a petition can write, and that a payslip is still $1.46 or $2.20, and that the two numbers can share a country without sharing a kitchen.

James Irungu, one of the former moderators in the AP walk of the appeal: a significant victory. AP, in that weather: eight hours a day, 60,000 shillings, about $414 a month, in some petitioners' mouths — a different arithmetic than TIME's foreign $528 pretax. I am keeping both arithmetics. Months are lists.

April 2026 still asked for mouths. I still label those walks as walks. The 2024 door is the holding I will type. The 2026 mouths are a later weather.

Ross's game is still on. I still prefer a score to a face. Amos wrote Apr 2023 ≠ Sep 2024 ≠ Apr 2026 and care order ≠ wellness slide. He said steal those. I stole them again.

[2024] KECA 1262 (KLR), 20 September 2024, Court of Appeal at Nairobi. Consolidated Civil Appeals E232 and E445 of 2023. Meta Platforms, Inc. and others against Motaung and 186 others. Interested parties in the caption weather include the Kenya National Human Rights and Equality Commission. I am typing the 186 so a grocery line that heard 183 can see a different stack on a different caption. Stacks are labels.

The appellants' argument, as the judgment walks it: they are foreign companies incorporated outside Kenya, not carrying on business in Kenya, not subject to the Constitution and the laws of Kenya, therefore Kenyan courts have no jurisdiction. They pointed at sovereignty and at a Raytheon line of cases about foreign corporates. The court underscored that jurisdiction means the power to try a case, and that the appellants were not really saying the ELRC lacked power to hear labour matters — they were saying foreign companies are not subject. The appeals were found devoid of merit and dismissed with costs. Factual questions — virtual presence, revenue, whether an employment relationship exists — belong at trial, in the walks of the holding. I will not upgrade a jurisdiction door to an employer finding. I will say a parent can argue it is a stranger, and that a court can say the argument is for trial, and that trial is still a later weather.

April 2026 still asked for mouths. I still label those walks as walks. Laura O'Hanlon still sits in local walks as a name requested. I still will not invent a transcript.

The parliament petition asked for an occupational-hazard amendment. The TIME Facebook kitchen named categories. The TIME ChatGPT kitchen named categories. I will not open a category. I will say two magazines and a petition and a judgment can share a vendor and still be four rooms.

Ione's isopropyl is still not sanitizer. I still will not tell her to buy a laptop. Amos, for once, did not write a tattoo. He said the judgment was already a tattoo. I paid the invoice.

Foxglove, walking the Kenya cases: if the court finds Meta the true employer in the eyes of the law, they cannot hide behind middlemen like Sama or Majorel; it will be their responsibility to value and protect the workers who protect social media. I am labeling that as an advocacy sentence, not a holding. KECA 1262 opened a door. Trial is still a later weather. True-employer is a theory a nonprofit can write. Theories are captions. Captions are not verdicts.

The Alliance, 2019: Motaung and more than 100 colleagues at the Nairobi hub, in the Africa Solutions walk, tried to negotiate pay and mental health care; Facebook and Sama ignored the demands, in that telling; the nascent union was destroyed; Daniel forced to leave Kenya. TIME: fired while attempting to start a union; dismissal letter put the Facebook relationship at great risk. I am lining 2019 next to May 1, 2023, so a firing cannot eat a later vote, and a later vote cannot eat a firing. Four years is a list. Lists are this book's religion.

I will not open a frame Motaung watched. I will not typeset a counselor the court named. I will say a 2019 Alliance, a 2022 TIME kitchen, a 2022 petition, a 2023 summit, a 2023 parliament paper, a 2024 door, and a 2026 request for mouths can share a person and still be seven rooms. Seven is not a tote. Totes are closed.

Ross still prefers a game. I still prefer a score. Scores are lists. Faces are commercials.

NTSB HWY18MH010 is not a Sama docket. I am putting the number here anyway so a box in a TIME kitchen can sit next to a box that failed in Arizona without becoming one coin. Joe's pedestrians and cyclists were a Nairobi hour. Herzberg's bicycle was a classification the system would not hold. Motaung's categories were a floor. Okinyi's 700 were a day. I will not open any of them. I will say a box is a claim if a reasonable person would take it as a statement about a life, and that a life can be a pedestrian or a moderator or a woman walking a bike, and that the claim is why this chapter refuses a frame and still types a payslip.

$1.32, $1.46, $1.50, $1.52, $2.00, $2.20, $3.74, $12.50, $150,000, $200,000, $3.9 million, 21,000 shillings, $70 bonus, 20,000-shilling raise, 60,000 pretax foreign, $414 in an AP mouth, $528 in TIME. I am lining the arithmetic so a raise cannot eat a petition and a petition cannot eat a receptionist floor. Janah said do not distort. Motaung said difference, not a life. I am keeping both. Distortion is a theology. Lives are kitchens.

Ione still wipes isopropyl. I still do not ask her for a laptop. Ross still turns a face to a game. I still like the game.

I read KECA 1262's foreign-company paragraph to the shredder, which is a stupid way to read a judgment and the only way Amos will let me rehearse. They said they were not carrying on business in Kenya. The court said the appeals were devoid of merit. Factual questions — presence, revenue, whether an employment relationship exists — belong at trial. I stopped. Trial is not mine. The door is 1262. The Facebook TIME kitchen is February 14, 2022. The ChatGPT TIME kitchen is January 18, 2023. The Slack wind-down is February 17. The $12.50 is a vendor hour. The $1.32 is a pocket. I will not open a snippet. I paid the invoice for an hour I used to say that.