A former Facebook moderator in Kenya has accused Meta of human trafficking

A man who worked as a Facebook moderator in Africa is suing the platform's parent company, Meta, accusing it of human trafficking, forced labor, and union busting.

Daniel Motaung, a former Facebook moderator who was the subject of a February report by Time magazine, was employed by a San Francisco tech-outsourced firm that Facebook had contracted to conduct moderation.

Motaung's accusations against Meta and Sama were included in a petition filed Tuesday with the Employment and Labor Relations Court.

In an affidavit attached to his petition, Motaung said that he was not told during the recruitment process that he would be working for Facebook or that his job would involve viewing graphic and disturbing content.

Motaung said that he had to view images of beheadings and child sexual abuse as part of his job. Motaung has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder according to his petition.

Motaung's lawsuit says job ads were designed to trick applicants into thinking they were working for Facebook.

The lawsuit says this is a form of human trafficking.

Motaung said in a statement provided to Insider that when he first applied for the job, he was straight out of university and on a mission to lift himself and his family out.

Six months later, my physical and mental health had been destroyed.

Motaung said that he was fired because of his union activities after he tried to start an employee union.

Motaung said that Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies at firms cannot be allowed to treat people like this. We are not animals. We are people, and we deserve to be treated that way.

The lawsuit wants Meta and Sama to give mental-health support to their moderators and pay them the same wages as full-time Facebook employees.

According to the Time report, the equivalent of about $2.20 an hour was paid to the moderators.

Motaung wants compensation for former and current content moderators.

The company wouldn't comment on the legal claims.

We take our responsibility to the people who review content for Meta seriously and require our partners to provide industry-leading pay, benefits and support.

Content reviewers are encouraged to raise issues when they become aware of them and to conduct independent audits to make sure their partners are meeting high standards.

Sama did not respond to the request for comment. Time denied accusations of union busting and exploitation.