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Medium reported severity

Kenya: Sama lays off more than 1,000 workers after Meta ends its AI data-annotation contract; a workers' group alleges a link to staff speaking out

On 16 April 2026 Sama, an outsourcing company with operations in Nairobi that did AI data-annotation work for Meta, announced that Meta had given formal notice ending its contract and that a redundancy process would affect more than 1,000 employees. Sama put the figure at 1,108 workers. The Guardian reported that the workers were abruptly sacked, and the Oversight Lab said they had six days' notice. The decision came less than two months after the SvD and GP investigation in which Sama annotators said they had seen intimate footage from users of Meta's AI glasses. Meta said it paused its work with Sama the month before while it looked into those claims and then decided to end the work because Sama does not meet its standards. Sama says it was never notified of any failure to meet those standards. A Kenyan workers' organisation alleges Meta's decision was caused by staff speaking out, which Meta had not addressed when the BBC reported it on 30 April 2026. Employees told SvD that Sama tightened security and tried to identify who had spoken to journalists, which Sama denies. TechPolicy.Press reports that one worker, with Sama for over a decade, now faces starting from scratch. The workers are described by role and are not named.

AI system
Meta AI (reported)
Meta
Occurred
16 Apr 2026
Reported
17 April 2026
Event location
Kenya
What the AI did
Relation unknown
Reported harm
Professional Harm
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Work · Privacy
Evidence
AI involvement disputed · Causal attribution disputed · 5 sources, 4 underlying accounts
5 claims: 1 disputed, 4 reported. 9 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 1000 people

AI system as recorded: Human review of Meta AI assistant data from Ray-Ban Meta glasses by Sama annotators (AI training and data-annotation work), as reported

Reported harm

More than 1,000 employees of Sama in Kenya, many involved in AI training for Meta, were laid off after Meta ended its contract (1,108 by Sama's figure; six days' notice according to the Oversight Lab); TechPolicy.Press reports that one worker of over a decade now faces starting from scratch. Whether the termination responded to annotators speaking about footage from Meta's AI glasses is disputed: a Kenyan workers' organisation alleges it did, Meta says Sama does not meet its standards, and Sama says it was never notified of a failure.

What remains unknown

  • Sama's press release and Meta's notice of termination were not inspected. The announcement is known through outlets and company statements.
  • The final number of workers made redundant and how many of them worked on the glasses projects are not reported. The Guardian says 'many' were involved in AI training.
  • The reason for the termination is disputed and no inspected source shows Meta's internal reasoning. Meta declined follow-up questions from SvD.
  • The retaliation account rests on a workers' organisation, unnamed employees and one worker quoted by TechPolicy.Press. That worker also says Meta cited only compliance with Kenyan employment law, which differs from Meta's public statement about standards.
  • No source states that the workers made redundant were the same people who spoke to the newspapers, and the annotators' accounts of the footage are anonymous interview accounts.
  • SvD's 19 April 2026 article was paywalled (two paragraphs read), The Standard's article on the Kenyan regulator was paywalled, and the SvD article in this record was read in its English edition.
  • Whether any worker has taken legal action over these redundancies. Searches on 2026-10-18 found no report of one; the Oversight Lab said it was advising the workers on legal options.
  • Outlets differ on where Sama is headquartered (the Guardian says based in Nairobi, the BBC says US headquartered, TechPolicy.Press says San Francisco-based with offices in Nairobi, Ars Technica says Kenya-headquartered). This record uses only the location of the workers.
  • This record covers the April 2026 redundancies. The annotators' reported viewing of glasses users' footage started before 2026 and is not part of this record.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: disputed. Reviewed as a consequential response to AI use at work. The workers did data annotation for Meta's AI systems for its Ray-Ban Meta glasses (c5). After annotators told Swedish newspapers that this work showed them intimate footage from the glasses, Meta says it paused the Sama work while it looked into those claims and then ended it because Sama does not meet its standards (c3), and Sama announced the redundancies (c1, c2). A Kenyan workers' organisation alleges the termination was caused by the staff speaking out, Meta had not addressed that allegation, and Sama says it was never told of any failure (c4), so the link between the job losses and the annotators' accounts is disputed. No AI system produced output about, toward or on behalf of the workers, so the relation is unknown.

5 claims: 1 disputed, 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported On 16 April 2026 Sama, an outsourcing company with operations in Nairobi that did AI-training and data-annotation work for Meta, announced that Meta had given formal notice ending its contract and that a redundancy process would affect more than 1,000 employees. Sama put the number at 1,108 workers.

Causal attribution. The announcement and both figures trace to Sama's 16 April press release as relayed by SvD, the BBC, Ars Technica and TechPolicy.Press, so they are one origin. The press release itself was not inspected.

  • svd.se(opens in new tab) supports · English
    In a press release on the 16th April, Sama states it recently received a formal notice by Meta, a key client, that was ending its contract with the annotation firm, and that a redundancy process will affect more than 1 000 employees.
  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    announced on Thursday that the workers were being laid off after Meta terminated a contract.
  • bbc.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Less than two months later, Meta ended its contract with Sama, which Sama said would result in 1,108 workers being made redundant.
  • arstechnica.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Sama claims that Meta’s cancellation of the contract affected 1,108 workers.
  • techpolicy.press(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Sama’s April 16 press release announcing the mass layoffs spoke of compliance with Section 40 of Kenya’s Employment Act
Reported The Guardian reports that more than 1,000 workers in Kenya were abruptly sacked, many of them involved in AI training, and the Oversight Lab, which advocates for fair technology regulation in Africa, said they were given six days' notice. TechPolicy.Press reports that a worker who had been with Sama for over a decade was among those Sama announced it was making redundant on 16 April, and that the layoff left her starting from scratch.

Causal attribution. The Guardian's narrative and the Oversight Lab's notice period; TechPolicy.Press's account of one worker it interviewed. The final number made redundant is not reported.

  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    More than 1,000 low-paid workers in Kenya have been abruptly sacked by an outsourcing company contracted by Meta; The sacked workers, many involved in AI training, have been given six days’ notice, according to the Oversight Lab
  • techpolicy.press(opens in new tab) supports · English
    On April 16, that routine came to an end.; The sudden layoff has forced her to confront the reality that she is back at the starting blocks; She had worked for Sama for over a decade and is now faced with starting from scratch.
Reported Meta said in statements reported in April 2026 that it paused its work with Sama the month before while it looked into the claims about annotators viewing glasses footage, and that it decided to end its work with Sama because Sama does not meet its standards. Sama says it was never notified of any failure to meet those standards. SvD reports that after its investigation was published all Sama projects linked to Meta's smart glasses were halted.

Causal attribution. Meta's and Sama's own statements to the outlets, each attributed. SvD says Meta declined follow-up questions about what its own investigation found, and no source shows Meta's internal reasoning.

  • svd.se(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Last month, we paused our work with Sama while we looked into these claims.; After the investigation was published at the end of February, all projects at the subcontractor Sama in Kenya linked to Meta’s smart glasses were halted.
  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    We’ve also decided to end our work with Sama because they don’t meet our standards.
  • bbc.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Meta says it's because Sama did not meet its standards, a criticism Sama rejects.; At no point were we notified of any failure to meet those standards
Disputed A Kenyan workers' organisation alleges Meta's decision was caused by the staff speaking out, and when the BBC reported it on 30 April 2026 Meta had not addressed that allegation. Employees told SvD that Sama tightened security and tried to identify who had spoken to journalists. A worker quoted by TechPolicy.Press says the workers were told the termination was because of the Swedish investigation, without saying who told them. Sama says it does not monitor or track employees to identify who spoke to the media and rejects any suggestion of retaliatory behaviour.

Causal attribution. Allegations by a workers' organisation and by unnamed employees, denied or unaddressed by the companies. The TechPolicy.Press worker also says Meta cited only compliance with Kenyan employment law, which differs from Meta's public statement about standards. No document showing the reason for the termination was inspected.

  • bbc.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    A Kenyan workers' organisation alleges Meta's decision was caused by the staff speaking out.
  • bbc.com(opens in new tab) context · English
    Meta has not addressed that allegation
  • svd.se(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the company has tried to identify who spoke with journalists
  • techpolicy.press(opens in new tab) supports · English
    “From what they told us, they said it was because of the exposé from the Swedish journalists,”; “After the exposé, they started looking for people who could have leaked the information,”
  • techpolicy.press(opens in new tab) context · English
    Meta had pulled a major contract citing only compliance with Kenyan employment law.
  • svd.se(opens in new tab) contradicts · English
    we do not monitor or track employees for the purpose of identifying individuals who may have spoken to the media; we reject any suggestion of retaliatory behavior.
Reported Sama's Meta work included video, image and speech annotation for Meta's AI systems for Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The Sama annotators who told the Swedish newspapers about viewing private footage from the glasses were data annotators of this kind, and Meta paused its work with Sama after allegations about the workers viewing private scenes filmed with the glasses.

Causal attribution. Outlet descriptions of the work. Which of the redundant workers worked on the glasses projects is not reported, and no source states that the workers made redundant were the same people who spoke to the newspapers.

  • arstechnica.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    data annotation work, including working with video, image, and speech annotation for Meta’s AI systems for Ray-Ban Metas.
  • bbc.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The workers the Swedish newspapers spoke to were data annotators, teaching Meta's AI to interpret images by manually labelling content.
  • theguardian.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Last month Meta paused its work with Sama after allegations about the workers viewing private scenes filmed using the company’s Ray-Ban smart glasses

Sources

5 sources inspected, from 4 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

The Guardian, 17 April 2026; re-read in full live on 2026-10-18. Applies to s1.

SvD's own English edition of its 17 April 2026 article with GP, re-read live on 2026-10-18. The Swedish investigation of 25 February 2026 is not cited here; it was read in Swedish by the research agent (an AI) in September 2026 with no human review. Applies to s2.

BBC News, 30 April 2026; re-read in full live on 2026-10-18. Applies to s3.

Ars Technica, 30 April 2026; re-read live on 2026-10-18. It builds on the BBC report and adds Sama's statement to Ars, so it shares the BBC's group for the claims it relays. Applies to s4.

TechPolicy.Press, 12 June 2026; re-read in full live on 2026-10-18. The worker quoted is identified by a pseudonym in the source. Applies to s5.

Event countries: Kenya. Affected-person countries: Kenya. Court countries: Unknown.

The Guardian describes the workers as 'in Kenya' and SvD refers to Sama's projects in Kenya and its Nairobi operations. Outlets differ on where Sama is headquartered and that is not used. Where Meta took the decision is not stated and is not used.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-18: Published as a consequential response to AI use at work: more than 1,000 Sama workers in Kenya, many doing AI training for Meta, lost their jobs after Meta ended the contract that followed annotators' accounts of footage from Meta's AI glasses. The Guardian, SvD, BBC, Ars Technica and TechPolicy.Press were re-read in full. The announcement and figures are Sama's and stay reported, Meta's and Sama's statements are attributed, and the retaliation allegation is disputed. Workers are described by role and are not named.

People described

Sama employees in Kenya, many doing AI data-annotation work for Meta. They are described by role and are not named

People reported harmed in this case

At least 1000 people

0 AI participants · 1000 other people harmed

The Guardian states that 'more than 1,000' workers were abruptly sacked, and SvD's 17 April article says Sama's press release announced a redundancy process that 'will affect more than 1 000 employees'. BBC and Ars Technica give Sama's own figure of 1,108, stated as the number the termination would make redundant. The lower bound of 1,000 is counted as a documented minimum and the 1,108 figure is attributed to Sama. The Guardian's account of the sacking and TechPolicy.Press's report on a laid-off worker show the redundancies took effect. The final number made redundant is not reported, and dependants are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Kenya: Sama lays off more than 1,000 workers after Meta ends its AI data-annotation contract; a workers' group alleges a link to staff speaking out. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-kenya-sama-meta-ai-annotation-contract-ended-over-1000-redundancies-announced

BibTeX

@misc{2026_kenya_sama_meta_ai_annotation_contract_ended_over_1000_redundancies_announced,
  title = {Kenya: Sama lays off more than 1,000 workers after Meta ends its AI data-annotation contract; a workers' group alleges a link to staff speaking out},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-kenya-sama-meta-ai-annotation-contract-ended-over-1000-redundancies-announced}
}

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