Kenya’s Court of Appeal has maintained the Employment Court’s decision permitting 187 former Facebook content moderators to file a lawsuit against Meta, the company that owns social media platforms; Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

Two lawsuits that Meta is now dealing with in Kenya are from an ex-Sama moderator who sued the social media behemoth for allowing offensive content, and 187 former Sama moderators who claim they were wrongfully fired and are suing for damages.

The ruling could lead to a possible resolution after talks broke down in October by holding Meta accountable for the moderators’ actions in the biggest economy in East Africa. The former moderators are requesting 1.6 billion dollars in damages.

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“The cases by the content moderators against Meta, Sama, and Majorel can now proceed. Facebook had argued that it was a foreign company that couldn’t be sued in Kenya,” Mercy Mutemi, an advocate representing the ex-Sama Facebook moderators, said on Friday.

The primary case, which involves an unfair dismissal, is still undergoing resolution, according to Judges D.K. Musinga, Asike-Makhandia, and J. Mativo. If a settlement cannot be reached, the matter will move forward to the trial court.

“Whether or not the redundancy was lawful is a matter for determination during the hearing. We say no more,” the judges said.

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