Can't quite believe I'm writing this: Today, 150 African workers behind ChatGPT, TikTok and Facebook voted to unionize at a landmark meeting in Nairobi.

These AI workers are invisible, underpaid, and the backbone of the tech in all our pockets:

time.com/6275995/chatgp… Since this tweet is going viral, I'll share a few other links to my past reporting on these workers. Starting with the story that kicked it all off:

time.com/6147458/facebo…

🚨Exclusive: OpenAI used outsourced Kenyan workers earning less than $2 per hour to make ChatGPT less toxic, my investigation found

(Thread)

time.com/6247678/openai… These workers were tasked with reading and labeling text that described, often in graphic detail, situations like murder, child abuse, rape, animal abuse, torture and self harm

Content warning: this screenshot includes a description of sexual abuse (2/8)

Breaking: Lawmakers from the US, UK and S-Africa have written a letter condemning Meta and Sama for their practices in Kenya, and calling for content moderators to be protected in new online safety legislation:

via @RepCasten @DamianCollins @zilevandamme
independent.co.uk/voices/faceboo… @RepCasten @DamianCollins @zilevandamme "Facebook should release its un-redacted audits of Sama, or explain why if none exist. It should also make its full list of content moderator outsourcing partners public, so human rights organisations can properly scrutinise their practices"

BREAKING: Today, Facebook (Meta) and Sama received legal letters accusing them of multiple violations of Kenyan law, and impending lawsuits, as a result of details revealed in my recent story (thread!)

1/ The claimant is Daniel Motaung, the former content moderator whose experiences I recounted in my recent story "Inside Facebook's African Sweatshop."

2/
time.com/6147458/facebo…

New: Facebook content moderators in Kenya are to receive pay rises of between 30% and 50% following my investigation into low pay, poor working conditions and alleged union-busting at @SamaAI, their direct employer.

(Short thread)

time.com/6153778/facebo… Every content moderator will receive an extra 20,000 Kenyan shillings ($176) per month, Sama told employees in a meeting on Tuesday.

The raise means that the lowest-paid content moderators at Sama will now take home around 50,000 Kenyan shillings ($439) each month after tax

🚨NEW:

At Facebook’s external content moderation facility in Africa, employees describe traumatic working conditions, alleged union-busting, and pay as low as $1.50 per hour, my investigation found.

🧵Thread (1/)

time.com/6147458/facebo… I spoke to more than a dozen current and former employees of Sama, the outsourcing company that FB pays to clean up its platform in Africa.

All are poor; many psychologically vulnerable. They spoke at great risk to themselves, and put their faith in me to tell their stories.

2/

Frances Haugen was a member of a team at Facebook that was guided by an oath to put the public interest ahead of the company.

In December 2020, Facebook dissolved the team. It led Haugen to blow the whistle.

My cover story for TIME:
time.com/6104899/facebo… The “civic oath,” according to 5 former employees, urged civic integrity employees to understand Facebook’s impact on the world, keep people safe and defuse angry polarization.

The team was effective. But, just a month after the 2020 election, Facebook dissolved it.

(Thread 🧵)

Breaking:

40+ NGOs today sent an open letter to Zuckerberg demanding:

➡️ FB's India team be barred from influencing the ongoing audit (first reported by TIME) into FB's impact on human rights in India
➡️ FB publish its findings
➡️ Ankhi Das be placed on leave

Full letter: "Facebook Inc. must take immediate steps to ensure the independence and thoroughness of the ongoing human rights audit of its India operations, encompassing caste, religious bias, and elections operations," the letter says.

(...)

Exclusive: India’s ruling party is creating WhatsApp groups on an industrial scale ahead of elections this spring. My investigation found those group chats include widespread fake news and religious hatred (THREAD)
time.com/5512032/whatsa… There are hundreds of thousands of groups supporting the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP. In one, called “Vote for Modi,” party supporters shared this image of a Hindu priest being hanged, and said ‘Jihadis’ were responsible. [Warning: graphic]