Digital Work, Real Exploitation: Global Union Push Takes on Big Tech’s Content Mills
Introduction: The Fight Behind the Feed
Every day, millions scroll through social media feeds, rarely considering the invisible human labour that protects them from the internet’s darkest corners. But this critical work, performed by content moderators in countries like Kenya, the Philippines, Turkey, and Ghana; often comes at a high personal cost.
In April 2025, a new force emerged to challenge this status quo: the Global Trade Union Alliance of Content Moderators (GTUACM). Launched in Nairobi, the alliance aims to confront tech giants over the mental trauma, precarious contracts, and lack of protections endured by the moderators who keep digital spaces clean.
“We had to look at horrific videos; beheadings, abuse, torture,” said Michał Szmagaj, a former Meta content moderator. “It damages you... and there is no support.”
Big Tech’s Dirty Secret: A Global Workforce in Crisis
Moderators are tasked with reviewing graphic, violent, and hateful content to enforce community standards for platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. These jobs are often outsourced to firms like Sama and Majorel, where workers are paid low wages and bound by temporary contracts.
In Ghana and Kenya, dozens of moderators have filed legal action against Meta, citing psychological harm, poor pay, and exploitative work conditions. In one case, 150 Ghanaian workers are demanding accountability after being dismissed without support following years of exposure to extreme online content.
This human toll is central to what workers are calling "digital colonialism"; a model where content moderation is outsourced to the Global South, while tech companies reap billions in profits from the Global North.
Unions Step In: Building Global Solidarity
The formation of GTUACM marks a significant milestone in the fight for digital labour rights. At the heart of this movement is UNI Global Union, a Swiss-based international federation representing over 20 million workers across 150 countries in sectors including tech, media, and telecommunications.
UNI has been a critical ally in amplifying the voices of content moderators, offering legal, strategic, and organisational support. According to UNI’s Deputy General Secretary Christy Hoffman:
“Companies like Facebook and TikTok can’t keep hiding behind outsourcing to duck responsibility for the harm they help create.” This work can – and must – be safer and sustainable. That means living wages, long-term employment contracts, humane production standards and a real voice for workers. It’s time for Big Tech and their contractors to sit down with unions and get serious about change.”
In Kenya, the local struggle is being led by the Communication Workers Union of Kenya (COWU); a powerful affiliate of UNI Global. COWU, which represents telecom and digital workers across the country, has become the frontline organiser for content moderators employed in Nairobi’s burgeoning tech outsourcing industry.
COWU General Secretary Benson Okwaro has been vocal in demanding recognition and dignity for digital workers.
“Kenya has become a global hub for global moderation, and we welcome investors to Kenya to invest in this sector, but it must not be against the health of workers in this country,” Okwaro said during the launch of GTUACM.
“That is why we are organizing on the ground and alongside unions worldwide. Together we are sending a clear message to investors in this sector, including Meta, Tik Tok, Alphabet and Amazon that moderators everywhere will no longer stay silent while platforms make profit from their pain.”
COWU's work has helped expose Meta's reliance on companies like Sama to manage content moderation operations while avoiding direct responsibility for labour conditions.
Systemic Change or Corporate PR?
Tech companies have tried to deflect criticism. Meta claims to be reducing moderators’ exposure to harmful content by introducing content blurring. Yet workers report that this is a superficial fix. The trauma, they say, remains, along with relentless performance pressure and inadequate counselling.
Many moderators remain contractually barred from discussing their work publicly, stifling collective bargaining and whistleblowing. In response, GTUACM is demanding three core changes:
Permanent contracts with living wages
Access to trauma-informed mental health care
The right to unionise and engage in collective bargaining
These demands reflect a broader struggle over power, visibility, and the commodification of human attention and emotion in the digital age.
Conclusion: From Nairobi to the World, A Movement Gains Ground
The launch of GTUACM, backed by UNI Global Union and COWU, signals a new phase of labour organising in the tech sector; one rooted in cross-border solidarity and grounded in the lived realities of African, Asian, and Eastern European workers.
As global conversations around AI, ethics, and labour intensify, content moderators are making one thing clear: a humane digital future requires protecting the humans behind the algorithms.
What started as an invisible job is now at the centre of a visible fight. And it’s a fight unions intend to win.
References
Straight Arrow News (2025, May 2). Big Tech faces global push as social content moderators unionise. Link
UNI Global Union (2025, April 30). Content moderators launch first-ever global alliance. Link
The Guardian (2025, April 27). Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators. Link
The Verge (2025, April 30). Content moderators are organising against Big Tech. Link