Exclusive: Court documents show that a Meta contractor rejected Ethiopian insurgents’ threats against moderators

New evidence submitted in a case contesting the dismissal of dozens of moderators in Kenya claims that a contractor employed by Facebook’s parent firm Meta (META.O) opened a new tab and ignored threats to content moderators by Ethiopian rebels enraged by their work.

185 content moderators filed a lawsuit against Meta and two contractors last year, claiming they were fired for attempting to form a union while working for Sama, a Kenyan company that moderates Facebook content.

They claimed that after Facebook switched contractors, they were then prohibited from applying for the same positions at Majorel, another company.

According to court records filed on Dec. 4 by Foxglove, a British non-profit supporting the moderators’ case, moderators concentrating on Ethiopia said they were singled out by Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) rebels for taking down their videos, but Sama rejected their complaints.

After Sama accused the moderators “of creating a false account and manufacturing” the threatening messages, the moderators agreed to a probe and sent one of the moderators—whom the rebels publicly identified—to a safehouse, according to the petition reviewed by Reuters.

Sama informed Reuters that it was unable to respond to the claims. Requests for response from OLA and Meta spokespeople were not answered.

In his statement, Moderator Abdikadir Alio Guyo said that OLA had threatened “content moderators who were constantly pulling down their graphic Facebook Posts.”

He claimed that his supervisor disregarded his worries and that “they told us to stop removing their content from Facebook or else we would face dire consequences.”
In his affidavit, Hamza Diba Tubi, another moderator, stated that OLA sent him a message with the names and addresses of both himself and his coworkers.

“Since I received that threatening message, I have lived in so much fear of even visiting my family members in Ethiopia,” he stated.

Following the failure of peace negotiations in Tanzania in 2023 to end a conflict that has raged for decades, the administration of Oromiya, Ethiopia’s largest region, has accused OLA rebels of killing “many civilians” in attacks.

“A never-ending cycle of hateful content”

According to the court filings, Meta disregarded the counsel of specialists it engaged to address hate speech in Ethiopia.
“Stuck in an endless loop of having to review hateful content that we were not allowed to take down because it technically did not offend Meta policies,” Alewiya Mohammed, who oversaw dozens of moderators, stated in an affidavit.

In October of last year, the moderators’ and Meta’s out-of-court settlement negotiations broke down.

The case may affect Meta’s global interactions with content moderators. To assess graphic content posted on its site, the U.S. giant collaborates with moderators worldwide.

The OLA is a prohibited offshoot of an opposition party that was previously outlawed. Its complaints stem from the Oromo community’s purported marginalization in Ethiopia.

In a different case brought in Kenya in 2022, Meta was charged with allowing abusive and violent posts from Ethiopia to spread on Facebook, so escalating the conflict between the regional authority in Tigray and the federal government.