Daniel Motaung Credit - Aart Verrips for TIME
A lawyer representing Facebook’s parent company Meta called on a judge to “crack the whip” against a Black South African whistleblower on Monday, requesting a gagging order to prevent him from speaking to the media.
The whistleblower, Daniel Motaung, was paid $2.20 per hour to be a Facebook content moderator in Kenya. He was fired by Facebook’s outsourcing partner, Sama, in 2019 after he led more than 100 of his colleagues in a unionization effort for better pay and working conditions. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his work, and is now suing both Meta and Sama in a Nairobi court, alleging that he and his former colleagues are victims of forced labor, human trafficking and union-busting.
Motaung’s experiences at Sama were first reported by TIME in February 2022. He has since spoken about his ordeal publicly, including at a panel discussion on June 14 in London alongside another Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen. At a hearing in a Kenyan labor court on June 27, Sama’s lawyer Terry Mwango said that Motaung speaking to the media and in public about his experiences risked prejudicing court proceedings. Mwango requested a formal order to prevent Motaung and his lawyers from speaking about the case in public.
Meta’s lawyer, Fred Ojiambo, seconded Mwango’s request. “Unless the petitioner and particularly his advocates are injuncted by this court from continuing to deal with this matter in this way,...
The SEC is accusing a Florida fund manager of pocketing seven times his allowed fees and misrepresenting investment holdings to mislead investors. In a complaint filed in the Middle District of Fl...