Sama, Facebook’s largest content moderation provider, announced on
January 10, 2023, that it will be ending its partnership with Meta and
letting go of 200 employees.
The company cited the challenging economic climate as the reason for
ending its content review services to the social media platform.
Many employees will lose their work permits, as they relied on them to
remain in the East African Region.
Meta first contracted Sama in 2017, hiring over 1,500 employees to
moderate the most graphic and harmful content on the platform, including
child abuse and crime.
The social media company stated that it already has a new partner in place
to take over content moderation when Sama ends its services in March
2023, and it assured users that there will be no disruption to content
review.
Sama stated that it will focus on “labeling work,” also known as computer
vision data annotation, which includes placing animations in augmented
reality filters. The company encouraged its employees to apply for vacancies
in its offices in Kenya and Uganda.
Meta unveiled developments on the Facebook groups on October 25, 2022,
that were intended to help entrepreneurs better engage with their target
market.
The developments included a feature that allowed business owners to share
reels in groups and engage more effectively with their audience.
