Lawyers are gearing up for court action against a company contracted by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, after meeting moderators at a facility in Ghana that is understood to employ about 150 people.
Moderators working for Majorel in Accra claim they have suffered from depression, anxiety, insomnia and substance abuse as a direct consequence of the work they do checking extreme content.The allegedly gruelling conditions endured by workers in Ghana are revealed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
It comes after more than 140 Facebook content moderators in Kenya were diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder caused by exposure to graphic social media content.The workers in Kenya were employed by Samasource, an outsourcing company that carries out content moderation for Meta using workers from across Africa. Majorel, the company at the centre of the allegations in Ghana, is owned by the French multinational Teleperformance.One man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he attempted suicide owing to the nature of his work. His claims his contract was subsequently terminated and he has returned to his home country.
Facebook and other large social media companies employ armies of content moderators, often based in the poorest parts of the world, to remove posts that breach their community standards and to train AI systems to do the same.
Moderators are required to review distressing and often brutal pictures and videos to establish whether they should be removed from Meta’s platforms. According to workers in Ghana, they have seen videos of a person being skinned alive and a woman being beheaded.The moderators claim mental health care offered by the firm was unhelpful, was not delivered by medical doctors, and that personal disclosures made by staff about the effects of their work were circulated among managers.
Teleperformance disputed this, saying it employed licensed mental health professionals who are registered with the local regulatory body and hold a master’s degree in psychology, counselling, or another mental health field.The legal case is being prepared by a UK-based nonprofit, Foxglove. It would be the second case brought by content moderators in Africa, after Samasource workers in Kenya sued in 2023.
Foxglove said it was “urgently investigating these shocking abuses of workers” with a view to using “every tool at our disposal, including potential legal action” to improve working conditions.It is working with a Ghanaian firm, Agency Seven Seven, on preparing two possible lawsuits. One would allege psychological harms and could involve a group of moderators, and the other unfair dismissal, involving the moderator from east Africa whose contract was terminated after he attempted suicide.Foxglove’s co-executive director Martha Dark said: “These are the worst conditions I have seen in six years of working with social media content moderators around the world.
“In Ghana, Meta is displaying nothing short of a complete disregard for the humanity of its key safety workers upon whom all its profits rely: content moderators. They are treated as objects who can be used up, burned out and replaced with no care whatsoever for the permanent damage to their mental and physical wellbeing.”Dark said basic wages for content moderators in Accra were below living costs, incentivising them to work overtime, for which pay is understood to be even lower than normal rates. Moderators faced deductions from their pay for failing to meet performance targets, she added.
Contracts seen by the Guardian show that the base wage starts at about 1,300 Ghanaian cedis a month – just over £64. This is supplemented by a system of performance-related bonuses, the upper range of which amounts to about 4,900 cedis (£243) a month, significantly less than the estimated cost of living in Accra.A Teleperformance spokesperson said content moderators enjoyed “strong pay and benefits, including monthly pay that is roughly 10 times the country’s minimum wage for domestic moderators, and 16 times the minimum wage for those who have relocated from other countries, when including project allowance, transportation allowance, language premium and more – all of which are automatically paid to the moderator and are not performance-based”.
Foxglove’s researcher Michaela Chen said she had seen photos of moderators’ living quarters, in which they were “crammed five to a flat, two to a room”. She said there appeared to be a culture of secrecy, including surveillance from managers, who follow workers into the toilets during breaks.This extends to moderators’ work for Meta. She said: “Workers spend all day working on Meta’s platforms, moderating to Meta’s standards and using Meta’s systems, but at the same time, moderators are told constantly: ‘You do not work for Meta,’ and are forbidden from telling anyone they do.”Teleperformance said moderators were “offered housing in … one of the most upscale and well-known residential and commercial neighbourhoods in Accra”.
The spokesperson described the housing as “safe, with strong security” and having air conditioning, recreation facilities, including gyms and pools.Carla Olympio, a partner at Agency Seven Seven, said she believed a personal injury case could succeed in Ghana’s courts and would set a precedent establishing that worker protections extend to psychological harms as well as physical injury.“[There is] currently a gap in our laws because they haven’t necessarily caught up with the new developments that cover technology and virtual work,” she said.
Rosa Curling, a co-executive director at Foxglove, said it was seeking for the court to “order immediate changes to the content moderators’ workplace”, including proper safeguards and psychiatric care.A spokesperson for Teleperformance said: “At TP in Ghana, we take our content moderation work seriously. From the very beginning during the interview process, within the employee contract and through employee training and resiliency testing, we are fully transparent with our prospective moderators regarding the content they might see during their work to help keep the internet safe for our communities. We have robust people management systems and workplace practices, including a robust wellbeing programme staffed by fully licensed psychologists to support our content moderators throughout their content moderation journey.”Meta said the companies it worked with were “contractually obliged to pay their employees who review content on Facebook and Instagram above the industry standard in the markets they operate”.
The tech company said it took “the support of content reviewers seriously”, including detailing expectations around counselling, training and other support in contracts with the companies it outsourced.It said all content moderators signed client confidentiality agreements because they were dealing with user information which needed to be protected and for their own safety, but moderators may discuss their jobs with doctors and counsellors, and some aspects with family members.
About the author
Adenta Building Collapse Linked to Illegal Construction and Ignored Stop-Work Orders
A preliminary investigation into the collapse of a three-storey building at Adenta New Site in the Greater Accra Region has revealed that the project was carried out without the required regulatory approvals and in defiance of official stop-work directives issued by local authorities. The findings were released by a Joint Technical Investigative Committee comprising structural engineering experts and representatives from the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Ghana (IET-Gh), and the Architecture Registration Council (ARC). According to the committee, the incident highlights serious violations of Ghana’s building regulations and raises concerns about compliance and enforcement within the construction sector. The building collapsed on June 3, 2026, trapping five occupants beneath the debris. The victims included three adults and two children. Rescue teams successfully pulled four individuals from the rubble alive and transported them to the […]
Kpandai Residents Encouraged to Promote Unity and Peace for Sustainable Development
Residents of Kpandai in the Northern Region have been encouraged to put aside tribal, linguistic and political differences and work collectively toward the development of their communities. The call was made by the Parish Priest of St. Kizito Parish, Rev. Fr. Moses Nseaminya, during the launch of the St. Kizito Parish Feast, Partnership and Cultural Day Celebration. The event seeks to promote peace, social cohesion and stronger relationships among the various ethnic groups living within the district. Speaking during the launch, Rev. Fr. Nseaminya emphasized that diversity should be viewed as a strength that can drive development rather than a source of conflict and division. He noted that although residents come from different cultural backgrounds and hold varying political views, they all share a common goal of improving the welfare and future of Kpandai. According to the parish priest, meaningful […]
ECG Explains Power Outages in Greater Accra and Western Regions Following Technical Faults
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has attributed ongoing power interruptions in parts of the Greater Accra and Western regions to separate technical faults affecting its distribution network. In a statement issued on Monday, June 8, 2026, the power distributor said a technical fault at the Nsawam Primary Station has disrupted electricity supply to several communities within the Accra West operational area. The affected communities include Hebron, Medie, Samsam, Satellite, Koleman and nearby areas, where residents have been experiencing intermittent power outages. According to ECG, engineering teams have been deployed to the station and are actively working to identify and rectify the fault to restore stable electricity supply as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, in the Western Region, a broken high-tension (HT) electricity pole at Ankasa has caused a separate power disruption, affecting multiple towns and communities across the area. Communities […]
Burkina Faso forme 8 000 jeunes VDP agricoles pour renforcer l’autosuffisance alimentaire
La cérémonie officielle de sortie de la 3e cohorte des Volontaires pour la Défense de la Patrie (VDP) agricoles et de fin de formation de 8 000 jeunes en entrepreneuriat agricole s’est tenue le 5 juin 2026 à l’École nationale de formation agricole (ENAFA) de Matourkou. L’initiative s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’Initiative présidentielle pour l’agriculture et l’autosuffisance alimentaire, portée par les autorités burkinabè. Cette formation vise à renforcer les capacités des jeunes dans le secteur agricole tout en les impliquant dans une dynamique de production locale et de souveraineté alimentaire. Une jeunesse formée entre agriculture, civisme et engagement citoyen Le directeur exécutif du Bureau national des grands projets du Burkina Faso, Hamidou Sawadogo, a salué l’engagement des bénéficiaires. Selon lui, le programme traduit la volonté des autorités de transformer durablement le secteur agricole afin de réduire la dépendance alimentaire […]
Clément Zongo dédicace trois ouvrages littéraires à Ouagadougou
Le journaliste-chroniqueur burkinabè Clément Zongo a procédé, le 6 juin 2026 à Ouagadougou, à la dédicace de trois ouvrages intitulés La fille aux cheveux châtains, Les Chroniques de Clément Zongo et Juste un coup de plume. La cérémonie, organisée dans la grande salle du Centre national des arts du spectacle et de l’audiovisuel (CENASA), a réuni des acteurs du monde culturel, des professionnels des médias ainsi que de nombreux passionnés de littérature. De son vrai nom Alexis Yaméogo, Clément Zongo est titulaire d’une maîtrise en sciences et techniques de l’information et de la communication. Conseiller des affaires culturelles, il s’est distingué au fil des années grâce à plusieurs récompenses obtenues dans le domaine littéraire. Un roman consacré à la lutte contre les préjugés liés à l’albinisme Parmi les œuvres présentées figure La fille aux cheveux châtains, un roman qui aborde […]
Three Rescued as Rescue Teams Search for Trapped Victims After North Industrial Area Building Collapse
Rescue teams are continuing efforts to locate and extract individuals believed to be trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Accra’s North Industrial Area following a structural failure that has left several people injured. According to Alex King Nartey of the Ghana National Fire Service's communications team, three people have so far been rescued from the scene and are currently receiving medical treatment. However, emergency responders fear that at least three more individuals may still be trapped under the debris. Speaking at the site, Mr. Nartey explained that rescue operations have been slowed by the absence of earth-moving equipment needed to remove large sections of collapsed concrete and debris safely. He disclosed that the Fire Service has requested assistance from the military, while the Mayor of Accra has also facilitated the deployment of heavy machinery to support the […]
Related
Adenta Building Collapse Linked to Illegal Construction and Ignored Stop-Work Orders
A preliminary investigation into the collapse of a three-storey building at Adenta New Site in the Greater Accra Region has revealed that the project was carried out without the required regulatory approvals and in defiance of official stop-work directives issued by local authorities. The findings were released by a Joint Technical Investigative Committee comprising structural engineering experts and representatives from the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Ghana (IET-Gh), and the Architecture Registration Council (ARC). According to the committee, the incident highlights serious violations of Ghana’s building regulations and raises concerns about compliance and enforcement within the construction sector. The building collapsed on June 3, 2026, trapping five occupants beneath the debris. The victims included three adults and two children. Rescue teams successfully pulled four individuals from the rubble alive and transported them to the […]
Kpandai Residents Encouraged to Promote Unity and Peace for Sustainable Development
Residents of Kpandai in the Northern Region have been encouraged to put aside tribal, linguistic and political differences and work collectively toward the development of their communities. The call was made by the Parish Priest of St. Kizito Parish, Rev. Fr. Moses Nseaminya, during the launch of the St. Kizito Parish Feast, Partnership and Cultural Day Celebration. The event seeks to promote peace, social cohesion and stronger relationships among the various ethnic groups living within the district. Speaking during the launch, Rev. Fr. Nseaminya emphasized that diversity should be viewed as a strength that can drive development rather than a source of conflict and division. He noted that although residents come from different cultural backgrounds and hold varying political views, they all share a common goal of improving the welfare and future of Kpandai. According to the parish priest, meaningful […]
ECG Explains Power Outages in Greater Accra and Western Regions Following Technical Faults
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has attributed ongoing power interruptions in parts of the Greater Accra and Western regions to separate technical faults affecting its distribution network. In a statement issued on Monday, June 8, 2026, the power distributor said a technical fault at the Nsawam Primary Station has disrupted electricity supply to several communities within the Accra West operational area. The affected communities include Hebron, Medie, Samsam, Satellite, Koleman and nearby areas, where residents have been experiencing intermittent power outages. According to ECG, engineering teams have been deployed to the station and are actively working to identify and rectify the fault to restore stable electricity supply as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, in the Western Region, a broken high-tension (HT) electricity pole at Ankasa has caused a separate power disruption, affecting multiple towns and communities across the area. Communities […]
Three Rescued as Rescue Teams Search for Trapped Victims After North Industrial Area Building Collapse
Rescue teams are continuing efforts to locate and extract individuals believed to be trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in Accra’s North Industrial Area following a structural failure that has left several people injured. According to Alex King Nartey of the Ghana National Fire Service's communications team, three people have so far been rescued from the scene and are currently receiving medical treatment. However, emergency responders fear that at least three more individuals may still be trapped under the debris. Speaking at the site, Mr. Nartey explained that rescue operations have been slowed by the absence of earth-moving equipment needed to remove large sections of collapsed concrete and debris safely. He disclosed that the Fire Service has requested assistance from the military, while the Mayor of Accra has also facilitated the deployment of heavy machinery to support the […]
Sam George Warns Fake News Will Not Be Protected Under Press Freedom in Ghana
The Minister for Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, has reaffirmed the government's commitment to protecting press freedom while warning that deliberate misinformation and fake news will not be tolerated under the guise of journalism. Speaking on behalf of John Dramani Mahama at the 2nd Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) World Press Freedom Day Honours Night held at the Alisa Hotel on June 6, 2026, the minister stressed that a free and independent media remains essential to democratic governance. However, he maintained that freedom of expression must be exercised responsibly and should not be used to spread false information capable of causing harm to society. Addressing journalists, media executives, diplomats and civil society representatives, Mr. George stated that the government welcomes critical reporting and investigative journalism, describing media scrutiny as a vital component of a healthy democracy. Government Raises […]
Samson Lardi Anyenini Receives GJA Promotion of Press Freedom Award
Samson Lardi Anyenini Honoured by GJA for Outstanding Contribution to Press Freedom Renowned Ghanaian journalist and legal practitioner Samson Lardi Anyenini has been recognized by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for his significant contribution to press freedom, democratic accountability, and the protection of journalists' rights in Ghana. The respected broadcaster received the Promotion of Press Freedom Award during the Second GJA World Press Freedom Day Honours Night held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra on Saturday, June 6, 2026. The event brought together media professionals, government officials, civil society representatives, and members of the diplomatic community to celebrate individuals and institutions advancing responsible journalism and media independence. In a citation presented at the ceremony, the GJA praised Anyenini for his dedication to truth, justice, and accountability throughout his career in both journalism and law. The association highlighted his fearless approach […]