Kenya Insights

Tag: Meta

  • WhatsApp To Start Showing Ads

    WhatsApp To Start Showing Ads

    It took 11 years since Facebook acquired it for $19 billion, but Meta is finally bringing ads to WhatsApp, marking a major change for an app whose founders shunned advertising.

    Meta announced Monday that businesses will now be able to run so-called status ads on WhatsApp that prompt users to interact with the advertisers via the app’s messaging features. The ads will only be shown to users within WhatsApp’s “Updates” tab to separate the promotions from people’s personal conversations. Additionally, Meta will begin monetizing WhatsApp’s Channels feature through search ads and subscriptions.

    The debut of ads on the messaging app represents a significant step in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to make WhatsApp “the next chapter” in his company’s history, as he told CNBC’s Jim Cramer in 2022.

    The move to monetize WhatsApp also comes amid Meta’s high-profile antitrust case with the Federal Trade Commission over the company’s blockbuster acquisitions of the messaging app and Instagram.

    Already, Meta allows advertisers to run so-called click-to-message ads on Facebook and Instagram that steer users to WhatsApp where they can directly engage with businesses.

    Messaging between brands and consumers “should be the next pillar of our business,” Zuckerberg told analysts in April, adding that WhatsApp now has over 3 billion monthly users, including “more than 100 million people in the U.S. and growing quickly there.”

    Now, companies can run those kinds of ads within WhatsApp itself.

    The new status ads appear in a user’s Updates tab within that tab’s “Status” feature that can be used to share pictures, videos and text that vanish after 24 hours, akin to Instagram Stories.

    Since Meta bought WhatsApp in 2014, the popular messaging app has continued to grow worldwide. But unlike Facebook, Instagram and most recently Threads, WhatsApp has never allowed advertising.

    WhatsApp’s co-founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, were public in their scorn for the advertising industry, and the duo left Facebook after reportedly clashing with executives who were eager to inject the app with advertising and other practices they shunned.

    The social media company does not reveal WhatsApp’s specific sales, but analysts have previously estimated the app’s revenue to be between $500 million and $1 billion from charging businesses for tools and services so they can message customers on the app.

    Meta will “use very basic information” to recommend which ads to show WhatsApp users, Nikila Srinivasan, Meta’s head of product for business messaging, said Friday.

    This includes a person’s country, city, device, language and data like who they follow or how they interact with ads.

    The company debuted WhatsApp’s Updates tab in June 2023 along with an accompanying Channels feature that allows people and organizations to send broadcast messages and updates to their followers as opposed to personal conversations.

    Meta will also monetize the Channels feature, the company said Monday.

    Organizations and people who are Channel administrators will now be able to spend money to boost the visibility of their respective Channels when a person searches for them via a directory, similar to ads on Apple’s and Google’s app stores.

    Additionally, channel administrators will be able to charge users monthly subscription fees to access exclusive updates and content, Meta said Monday.

    The company will not immediately make money from those monthly subscription fees, but it plans to eventually take a 10% cut of those subscriptions, a spokesperson said.

    Meta hopes that by limiting its new ads to WhatsApp’s Updates tab it will disrupt users as little as possible, Srinivasan said.

    Users’ status updates as well as personal messages and calls on WhatsApp will remain encrypted, she said.

    “We really believe that the Updates tab is the right place for these new features,” Srinivasan said.

  • Carbon Credits Crisis: Maasai Herders Win Landmark Case Against Corporate Giants

    Carbon Credits Crisis: Maasai Herders Win Landmark Case Against Corporate Giants

    In a significant blow to major tech corporations’ environmental initiatives, a Kenyan court has ruled in favor of local Maasai herders in a dispute over carbon credits that could potentially cost companies like Netflix and Meta billions in invalid offsets.

    The Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project, touted as the world’s largest soil-carbon plan covering 4.7 million acres of grasslands, has been suspended by Verra, the international nonprofit that certifies carbon credits.

    This suspension follows the court ruling that found project developers had not properly secured consent from the indigenous communities whose lands were being used.

    “The project completely destroyed the traditional system and brought another one, which is like a displacement,” said Hassan Bidhu, one of the plaintiffs who challenged the project in court.

    The 33-year-old herder claimed that grazing restrictions imposed by the carbon project prevented him from accessing traditional dry-season pastures during Kenya’s devastating 2022 drought, resulting in cattle losses.

    The ruling potentially invalidates approximately 20% of the project’s credits, with rights groups suggesting that credits in around half of the project’s 14 wildlife conservancies could be vulnerable to similar legal challenges.

    This creates a precarious situation for corporations like Netflix and Meta, which have spent between $42 million and $90 million on over six million carbon credits to offset their substantial carbon footprints from energy-intensive operations.

    Both companies have used these credits to claim carbon neutrality – Meta in 2020 and Netflix in 2022. Representatives from both corporations defended their purchases, stating the credits had been “rigorously verified,” including by Verra.

    The dispute centers on allegations that the Northern Rangelands Trust, which runs the project, created conservancies through “pressure and intimidation rather than informed consent” from the pastoralist communities.

    While the trust has appealed the decision, the controversy highlights growing tensions in the rapidly expanding carbon offset market, which Morgan Stanley projects will grow from $1.4 billion today to between $7 billion and $35 billion by 2030.

    “This raises big questions about what the carbon industry will do about this,” said Simon Counsell, who co-authored a report on the issue with indigenous-rights group Survival International, noting companies might be forced to surrender invalid credits.

    The conflict reflects a broader clash between corporate environmental goals and indigenous rights.

    While some pastoralists support the project, citing benefits like new hospitals, scholarships, and wells, opponents argue that project restrictions disrupt centuries-old migration patterns based on seasonal rainfall and pasture availability.

    Similar disputes are emerging elsewhere, with violent protests recently erupting over a carbon project in southern Kenya.

    Maasai activists in neighboring Tanzania have called for a five-year suspension of carbon projects, with rights organizations warning that these initiatives could eventually lock nearly all ancestral Maasai lands into offset projects or protected areas.

    For 23-year-old Gedion Kanchori, who is leading opposition efforts in southern Kenya, the issue is existential: “This land is our inheritance. We will do anything to protect it.”

    As corporations face increasing pressure to meet climate commitments, this ruling serves as a stark reminder that environmental solutions must include meaningful consultation with and consent from indigenous communities to be truly sustainable.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

  • Discrimination: Kenyans Working For Meta Paid Far Less Than Others

    Discrimination: Kenyans Working For Meta Paid Far Less Than Others

    Fresh claims of alleged unfair pay for Africans working for Meta have emerged in a landmark battle pitting the social media giant and a Kenyan labour outsourcing company against former employees.

    In court documents filed before the Employment and Labour Relations Court, 185 former moderators allege that they were paid less than their colleagues working in Europe and the US.

    They also alleged that they did not get proper medical cover, including dedicated psychiatrists owing to the graphic contents they were to moderate.

    They alleged that those who work in other countries are paid between Sh2,322 ($18) to Sh2,580 ($20) per hour while those in Kenya get about Sh283 ($2.20) per hour.

    They have sued Meta Platforms INC, Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, Samasource Kenya EPZ, Majorel Kenya and Majorel Kenya Solutions EPZ. They listed Attorney General, Labour Cabinet Secretary and the Director of Occupational Safety and Health Services as interested parties.

    “The work of a moderator is in itself not easy and is inherently toxic and dangerous. This is because moderators are exposed to the worst of humanity which they must consume in order to keep the Facebook platform healthy for everyone else,” say the suit papers.

    Examples of the posts include pictures and videos of people being raped and children being molested, people being killed alive, people committing suicide or committing other forms of self-harm.

    Meta in its responses stated that it cannot be sued in Kenya. It denied being an employer.

    Nevertheless, they argued that the arrangement between the social media giant and the labour outsourcing companies meant that it was actively engaged as an employer.

    The court heard that a moderator gets around Sh50,000 inpatient and outpatient cover.

    “Moderators came into the job whole and as promising young Africans. They leave as broken shells of themselves with no hope as to whether they will ever be well again. They have built the 1st and 2nd respondents’ product into the giant that it currently is and now leave their employment with nothing to show of it apart from psychological scars of inhuman and degrading treatment from all four respondents,” the moderators’ lawyers claim.

    Meta, Samasource and Majorel denied the claims. They asserted that the workplace had professionals who ensured moderators’ mental health is taken care
  • Australia Passes Social Media Ban For Children Under 16

    Australia Passes Social Media Ban For Children Under 16

    Australia passed a law on Thursday to ban social media for children aged under 16 after days of heated debate, setting a standard for other countries to follow in a global push to curb the power of Big Tech.

    The law, expected to take effect in November 2025, sets some of the toughest social media controls in the world and will force platforms to take reasonable steps to ensure age-verification protections are in place.

    After a parliamentary session that went into the night, the country’s Senate, or upper house of parliament, voted to pass the law after the centre-left Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won support from the conservative opposition.

    The Senate’s approval for the law is the final legislative hurdle after the lower house, or House of Representatives, passed the bill on Wednesday.

    Albanese, trying to lift his approval ratings ahead of an election expected in May, had argued that social media posed risks to the physical and mental health of children and is looking for support from parents.

    Australia plans to trial an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce the ban. The trial will run for several months and its findings would be reviewed by mid-2025.

    Under the law, companies could be fined up to A$49.5 million ($32 million) for breaches.

    In submissions to parliament, Alphabet’s Google and Meta said the ban should be delayed until the age-verification trial finishes, expected in mid-2025. Bytedance’s TikTok said the bill needed more consultation, while Elon Musk’s X argued the proposed law might hurt children’s human rights.

    A Senate committee backed the bill this week, but also inserted a condition that social media platforms should not force users to submit personal data such as passport and other digital identification to prove their age.

  • Trump Hosts Meta CEO Zuckerberg For Dinner At his Mar-a-Lago Club In Florida

    Trump Hosts Meta CEO Zuckerberg For Dinner At his Mar-a-Lago Club In Florida

    President-elect Donald Trump hosted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for dinner at his Mar-a-Lago Club resort in Florida on Wednesday, CBS News reported.

    The meeting brought together the former president, banned from the platform previously, and the founder of Facebook.

    A Meta spokesperson confirmed the dinner to CBS News, saying Zuckerberg was grateful for the invitation and the opportunity to meet with members of Trump’s team about the incoming administration.

    Stephen Miller, appointed deputy chief of staff for Trump’s second term, also said Zuckerberg, like other business leaders, wants to support Trump’s economic policies.

    “Mark, obviously, he has his own interest, and he has his own company, and he has his own agenda,” Miller said in an interview with Fox News.

    “But he’s made clear that he wants to support the national renewal of America under Trump’s leadership,” he added.

  • Maasai Fight Carbon Project That Sold Credits To Meta, Netflix

    Maasai Fight Carbon Project That Sold Credits To Meta, Netflix

    Members of Kenya’s Maasai pastoralist community are clashing with managers of a major carbon project, raising new concerns that international demand for carbon credits generated in Africa could have damaging consequences for local communities.

    The Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project (NKRCP), which describes itself as the world’s largest soil carbon removal project, has sold carbon credits to corporations including Meta, Netflix and UK bank NatWest. It restores and maintains grasslands to absorb carbon by managing the grazing patterns of livestock herds on the 4.7 million acres it covers. Absorbing carbon allows it to generate carbon credits, which can be purchased by corporations to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions.

    Many members of affected local communities say the project is disrupting their ways of life and denying them access to their ancestral land. Some also say it puts women at risk due to harsh work conditions in some areas.

    Community activists working in Baringo, Narok and Kajiado counties in Kenya, where the project operates, say that NKRCP had failed to undertake proper public participation or educate local communities, leading to complaints from members of affected communities and resistance to the project’s efforts to fence off land in some areas.

    They claimed that the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), which runs the project, has failed to gain the informed consent of affected communities for the carbon project as is legally required, despite the NRT’s insistence that it has letters of consent.

  • Why Ex-Staffer Wants To Sue Zuckerberg And US Firm Sama Banned From Kenya

    Why Ex-Staffer Wants To Sue Zuckerberg And US Firm Sama Banned From Kenya

    A former Facebook content moderator in Kenya has put Mark Zuckerberg on notice of 21 days to iron out issues at the Nairobi office or face a lawsuit.

    Daniel Motaung, the whistleblower from a report in TIME, sent a legal letter to Facebook and their outsourcing company in Kenya, Sama, telling them to make 12 big changes to improve conditions for moderators – or we’ll sue.

    The office in Nairobi, Kenya, where Facebook content moderators began working in 2019, photographed on Feb 10, 2022. Sama was known publicly as Samasource until early 2021. Khadija Farah for TIME

    “There is no doubt that Meta not only knew of Sama’s unlawful treatment of its employees but also ratified it in order to keep the cost of content moderation in Kenya low,” the demand letter says.

    “This is regrettable and shows how little respect Meta has not only for human rights in general but also for the rights of Kenyans and Africans at large… It is not only discriminatory but also amounts to neo-colonialism in the worst possible form.”

    The letter continues: “Sama’s dishonest branding as an ethical company committed to lifting the status of disadvantaged youth falls flat. Their business practices are not only immoral but also
    unlawful.”

    The letter says that Motaung’s lawyers are requesting the Kenyan government to revoke Sama’s license to operate as an outsourcing business in Kenya.

    The list of demands, in full.

    The letter adds: “SHOULD Meta and Sama fail to adhere to ALL our client’s demands within twenty-one (21) days of receiving this letter, we will institute a civil suit against both Meta and Sama.”

    Screenshots credits Billy Peringo.


    The letter accuses Meta and Sama of breaking section 45 of Kenya’s data protection act, by surveilling employees’ screen time during working hours.

    And it accuses Meta and Sama of breaking section 5 of Kenya’s employment act, through discriminatory treatment, including pay discrimination and sub-par psychological support compared to content moderation offices in other countries.

    Content moderation is essential to Facebook. It would go down overnight without it. But it is backbreaking, dangerous and poorly paid. Some moderators in Kenya were paid less than $2 an hour.

    Their job is to sift through the social media posts of Facebook’s nearly 3 billion monthly users and remove posts that violate its rules – such as graphic violence, hate, and misinformation.

    Moderators, and the conditions in which they work, are the foundation of a healthy social media ecosystem.

    And it accuses Sama of breaking Kenya’s labor relations act in its handling of the unionization effort described in my story. The letter says Motaung was unlawfully terminated.

    Sama fired Daniel after he began organising with his co-workers to form a trade union to fight for better conditions at his office in Nairobi. Not only is that despicable, it’s also against Kenyan law.

    So much for a so-called ‘ethical AI company’

    TIME revealed moderators from Kenya miss out on a monthly relocation bonus paid to staff from outside the country, worth $1.46 per hour, after tax. Bosses also warned Kenyan moderators they were more easily replaceable than staff from outside the country, which many took as a threat of being fired.

    Sama had previously come under fire for its low wages. In 2018, company founder Leila Janah justified the levels of pay: “One thing that’s critical in our line of work is to not pay wages that would distort local labour markets. If we were to pay people substantially more than that, we would throw everything off.”

    It also provides new detail on the consequences that Daniel Motaung suffered as a result of his work, including a PTSD diagnosis.

    In his legal battle against Facebook supported by not-for-profit Foxglove. His confidence is fuelled by a legal settlement in 2020, in which 11,250 moderators from outsourcing company Cognizant received $52 million from Facebook in damages, including widespread symptoms of PTSD. This worked out to a minimum of $1000 of compensation, roughly enough to cover twenty hours of therapy. As a result, Facebook promised moderation tools such as muting audio by default and changing videos to black and white to minimise distress.

    These latest revelations The about abuses at the content moderation centre in Nairobi, Kenya, expose a rot at the heart of Facebook.

    On taking Facebook to court Daniel says, ““The violence I witnessed working for Facebook changed my life – I’m determined not to let Facebook damage others in the same way. I’m bringing this case for all the colleagues I left behind and for everyone who relies on Facebook to read the news and seek the truth. Facebook is one of the richest companies in the world and engages in colonial exploitation in Africa just to keep its profit margins high. And Sama, which claims to be ‘ethical’, is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing, exploiting impoverished Kenyans and other Africans under the guise of social uplift. We must force these companies to clean up their act.”

  • Facebook To Scrutinize Political Adverts From Kenya Ahead Of General Elections

    Facebook To Scrutinize Political Adverts From Kenya Ahead Of General Elections

    Facebook parent company, Meta, has announced it will require owners of political advertisements In Kenya to provide their real identity as proof before publishing the ads on the platform including Instagram.

    Meta says the tools and resources which target political ads ahead of the 2022 general election slated for August 9, 2022, are meant to enhance elections integrity and transparency in political advertising.

    This is expected to help voters know who is behind the political ads they see on Facebook and Instagram while equipping political advertisers with key resources to reach and engage their supporters and potential voters throughout the election period.

    Meta says advertisers seeking to run political ads in Kenya will undergo a verification process to prove who they are and that they live in the country.

    Meta will then run additional checks to ensure compliance with its policies. Political ads in Kenya will also be labelled with a “Paid for by” disclaimer to show who’s behind the ad.

    Additionally, the firm will put political ads that run in Kenya on its Ads Library in order to be seen ensure voters are able to see what ads are running, information about targeting, and how much was spent.

    Meta Public Policy Director for East and Horn of Africa Mercy Ndegwa said the fully searchable archive will store the ads for seven years.

    “Meta has continued to invest in technology towards election integrity. We believe political discussion and debate should be transparent to every voter, which is why over the past few years we’ve introduced a number of tools that provide more information about political ads on Facebook and Instagram,” said Ndegwa.

    Meta announced last year that it was rolling out new controls so that people can choose to see fewer social issues, electoral, and political ads.

    When people use these controls, they’ll no longer see ads that run with a “Paid for by” disclaimer, said the firm.

  • Facebook Changes Name To Meta

    Facebook Changes Name To Meta

    (Reuters) – Facebook is now called Meta, the company said on Thursday, in a rebrand that focuses on its ambitions building the “metaverse,” a shared virtual environment that it bets will be the next big computing platform.

    The name change comes as the world’s largest social media company battles criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its platforms.

    CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the company’s live-streamed virtual and augmented reality conference, said the new name reflected its ambitions to build the metaverse, rather than its namesake social media service.

    The metaverse, a term first coined in a dystopian novel three decades ago and now attracting buzz in Silicon Valley, refers broadly to the idea of a shared virtual environment which can be accessed by people using different devices.

    “Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future,” said Zuckerberg.

    The company, which has invested heavily in augmented and virtual reality, said the change would bring together its different apps and technologies under one new brand. It said it would not change its corporate structure.

    The tech giant, which reports about 2.9 billion monthly users, has faced increasing scrutiny in recent years from global lawmakers and regulators.

    In the latest controversy, whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugenleaked documents which she said showed the company chose profit over user safety. Zuckerberg earlier this week said the documents were being used to paint a “false picture.”

    The company said in a blog post that it intends to start trading under the new stock ticker it has reserved, MVRS, on Dec. 1. On Thursday, it unveiled a new sign at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, replacing its thumbs-up “Like” logo with a blue infinity shape.

    Facebook shares were up more than 3% late on Thursday afternoon.

    Facebook said this week that its hardware division Facebook Reality Labs, which is responsible for AR and VR efforts, would become a separate reporting unit and that its investment in it would reduce this year’s total operating profit by about $10 billion.

    In an interview with tech publication the Information, Zuckerberg said he has not considered stepping down as CEO, and has not thought “very seriously yet” about spinning off this unit.

    The division will now be called Reality Labs, its head Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said on Thursday. The company will also stop using the Oculus branding for its VR headsets, instead calling them “Meta” products.

    This year, the company created a product team focused on the metaverse and it recently announced plans to hire 10,000 employees in Europe over the next five years to work on the effort.

    The company has had multiple hits to its reputation over recent years, including over its handling of user data and its policing of abuses such as health misinformation, violent rhetoric and hate speech. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has also filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging anticompetitive practices.

    “While it’ll help alleviate confusion by distinguishing Facebook’s parent company from its founding app, a name change doesn’t suddenly erase the systemic issues plaguing the company,” said Forrester Research Director Mike Proulx.

    Zuckerberg said the new name, coming from the Greek word for “beyond,” symbolized there was always more to build. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Thursday tweeted out a different definition “referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.”

    Zuckerberg said the new name also reflects that over time, users will not need to use Facebook to use the company’s other services.