Last month, a courtroom in Kenya issued a landmark ruling towards Meta, proprietor of Facebook and Instagram. The US tech large was, the courtroom dominated, the “true employer” of the tons of of individuals employed in Nairobi as moderators on its platforms, trawling by way of posts and pictures to filter out violence, hate speech and other shocking content. That means Meta may be sued in Kenya for labor rights violations, although moderators are technically employed by a 3rd celebration contractor.

Social media large TikTok was watching the case carefully. The firm additionally makes use of outsourced moderators in Kenya, and in different nations within the international south, by way of a contract with Luxembourg-based Majorel. Leaked paperwork obtained by the NGO Foxglove Legal, seen by WIRED, present that TikTok is anxious it may very well be subsequent in line for potential litigation.

“TikTok will likely face reputational and regulatory risks for its contractual arrangement with Majorel in Kenya,” the memo says. If the Kenyan courts rule within the moderators’ favor, the memo warns “TikTok and its competitors could face scrutiny for real or perceived labor rights violations.”

The ruling towards Meta got here after the tech firm tried to get the courtroom to dismiss a case introduced towards it and its outsourcing associate, Sama, by the South African moderator, Daniel Motaung, who was fired after making an attempt to kind a union in 2019.

Motaung stated the work, which meant watching hours of violent, graphic, or in any other case traumatizing content material day by day, left him with post-traumatic stress dysfunction. He additionally alleged that he hadn’t been totally knowledgeable in regards to the nature of the work earlier than he’d relocated from South Africa to Kenya to begin the job. Motaung accuses Meta and Sama of a number of abuses of Kenyan labor legislation, together with human trafficking and union busting. Should Motaung’s case succeed, it may enable different giant tech firms that outsource to Kenya to be held accountable for the way in which workers there are handled, and supply a framework for comparable circumstances in different nations.

“[TikTok] reads it as a reputational threat,” says Cori Crider, director of Foxglove Legal. “The fact that they are exploiting people is the reputational threat.”

TikTok didn’t reply to a request for remark.

In January, as Motaung’s lawsuit progressed, Meta tried to chop ties with Sama and transfer its outsourcing operations to Majorel—TikTok’s associate.

In the method, 260 Sama moderators had been anticipated to lose their jobs. In March, a decide issued an injunction stopping Meta from terminating its contract with Sama and shifting it to Majorel till the courtroom was capable of decide whether or not the layoffs violated Kenyan labor legal guidelines. In a separate lawsuit, Sama moderators, a few of whom spoke to WIRED earlier this 12 months, alleged that Majorel had blacklisted them from making use of to the brand new Meta moderator jobs, in retaliation for making an attempt to push for higher working situations at Sama. In May, 150 outsourced moderators working for TikTok, ChatGPT, and Meta through third-party firms voted to kind and register the African Content Moderators Union.