Facebook’s largest content moderation provider Sama on Tuesday, January 10, announced the end of its partnership with Meta, stating that it will be letting go 200 employees.
Sama stated that it would no longer offer content review services to the social media platform owing to the difficult economic climate.
Many employees lost their permits, most of which relied on work licenses to remain in the East African Region.
“The current economic climate requires more efficient and streamlined business operations,” Sama explained.
Meta first contracted Sama in 2017 hiring more than 1,500 employees. The hub was entrusted to moderate the most graphic and harmful material on the platform including child abuse and crime.
The social media company stated that it already had a new partner in place to take over content moderation when Sama ends its services in March 2023. It however assured users of continuous review of content.
“We’ll work with our partners during this transition to ensure there’s no impact on our ability to review content,” Meta stated.
Sama stated that the company would concentrate on labeling work, also known as computer vision data annotation, which includes placing animations in augmented reality filters.
The company however encouraged its employees to apply for vacancies in its offices in Kenya and Uganda.
"In today's economic climate, more efficient and streamlined business operations are required," Sama stated.
Meta unveiled developments on the Facebook groups Tuesday, October 25, 2022, that were meant 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 better with their audience.
