oday marks the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery. The day marks the remembrance of the abhorrent transatlantic slave trade, one of the worst human rights violations in our world’s history.
While West African countries suffered desperately from the slave trade, we now know that East Africans were also victims, often headed to coffee and sugar plantations in places like present day Haiti. Senegalese anthropologist and author, Tidiane N’Diaye, indicates East African slavery by Arab–Muslims was significant, with slaves routed through the Trans–Saharan route from Egypt to Morocco. While the numbers of lives affected and lost are still disputed, we now know that countries like Kenya were not spared from the slave trade. Thousands upon thousands of lives were lost to other parts of the world or ended through abuse, disease, and famine as they made their way precariously to port destinations in multiple regions around the globe.
As we take today to remember and recognize this evil slavery action of the past, we must also recommit our actions to eradicate modern–day slavery, where the new chains and shackles are hidden, and disturbingly, often under the guise of legitimate work.
In today’s Kenya, which now proudly touts itself as the “Silicon Savannah,” the new slavery routes can be digital, relating to advances in technology and artificial intelligence, with new populations to be trafficked and preyed upon. While technology is creating legitimate opportunity in the region, it has also created a new type of modern–day slavery. Known as Kenya’s “humans in the loop” (HITL), these ancestors of stolen and traded slaves are actively toiling by sorting, labeling, and sifting through disturbing data and violent imagery to improve AI for some of the world’s most prominent tech companies, including OpenAI and Meta.
These individuals experience a different type of abuse than their ancestors, forced to train AI to recognize pornography and extreme violence, including the killing of humans and images of physical abuse for hours and hours on end. Today’s modern day slave traders in Kenya are unethical outsourcing firms from the West, often paying scant more than $1 dollar per day. This abuse has gained attention, with a May 2022 ongoing legal case against Meta, and their San Francisco based sourcing firm Sama, which include allegations of human trafficking and forced labor. Even the President of Kenya, William Ruto, has waded into the controversy. In just the last few months, reports indicate that at least 144 individuals who are part of the case have been diagnosed with severe PTSD—citing harsh working conditions and mental health harm.
Not every digital worker experiences the nightmare that the Kenya’s HITL’ers have shared. Digital work platforms provide adaptability and can assist in connecting to a worldwide labor pool, opening unprecedented job and business prospects. Access to new markets and digital employment opportunities can offer flexibility to workers, while providing consumers with more convenient and affordable products.
So how do we move forward and strike a balancing act that promotes innovation and safeguarding workers' rights? How can we ensure that digital slavery doesn’t become the new scourge of 21st century?
Preventing modern–day slavery for digital workers in Kenya and other countries requires a multifaceted approach. It’s critical that employers, workers, and governments engage to address the need for policies that effectively juggle promoting innovation, safeguarding workers' rights, and maintaining the advantages of dynamic economic landscapes. Issues of legal reform, government oversight, corporate accountability, worker empowerment, and international cooperation are essential to ensure fair treatment and compliance of the growing number of digital workers around the world.
But how does one define international labor standards in the digital world and ensure a level playing field for all? How can countries like Kenya excel at both attracting foreign investment and protecting workers?
This June, global employers, along with workers and governments, will come to the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) to begin a critical two–year standard setting discussion on decent work in the platform economy. This tripartite body—the oldest organization within the United Nations system—will attempt to create a common set of recommendations and/or standards that will provide the roadmap for decent work in the digital economy for years to come.
So how will the discussion go? Employers, workers, and governments share a common vision that leveraging the platform economy’s possibilities, while ensuring decent work, offers tremendous potential. However, this is where the commonality ends.
Top concerns in these discussions will include how digital workers are classified and which parties are responsible for social protection schemes. In addition, the policy issues around algorithmic management will take center stage, with workers criticizing algorithmic management for creating unrealistic work allocation, pay disparities and excessive surveillance. Employers see algorithmic systems as essential for efficiency and scalability and would like to resist heavy regulation that may limit technological innovation. Governments in this process have varying positions—some calling for regulation to ensure fairness, while others prioritize the need to balance innovation with workers’ rights.
Today, we acknowledge that the transatlantic slave trade represents one of our darkest moments in human history. Just as our ancestors could not possibly fathom that one day our routes of trade would be digital, we should not fathom the use of modern–day slavery when it comes to the opportunities of emerging digital technology.
As former United States President Abraham Lincoln famously wrote “if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Here’s to hoping that the ILO gets the discussion on decent work in the platform economy right and that modern–day slavery in the digital realm is ended once and for all.
Editor's note: This piece was originally published here.
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Recommit to eradicating modern–day slavery in the digital realm
modern-day slavery, digital labor exploitation, Kenya HITL workers, AI training labor abuse, platform economy regulation, OpenAI outsourcing controversy, Meta forced labor case, Sama Kenya lawsuit, ILO decent work standards, transatlantic slave trade remembrance, algorithmic management debate, tech company accountability, digital workers’ rights, fair labor practices AI, platform economy workers, PTSD digital workers Kenya, ethical AI development, digital economy labor rights, human trafficking tech industry, UN ILO standard setting.Image by Marco Verch, CC-BY 2.0
March 25, 2025
As we observe this International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery, we should recommit to ending modern–day digital slavery in Kenya, writes Martha Newton.
T
oday marks the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery. The day marks the remembrance of the abhorrent transatlantic slave trade, one of the worst human rights violations in our world’s history.
While West African countries suffered desperately from the slave trade, we now know that East Africans were also victims, often headed to coffee and sugar plantations in places like present day Haiti. Senegalese anthropologist and author, Tidiane N’Diaye, indicates East African slavery by Arab–Muslims was significant, with slaves routed through the Trans–Saharan route from Egypt to Morocco. While the numbers of lives affected and lost are still disputed, we now know that countries like Kenya were not spared from the slave trade. Thousands upon thousands of lives were lost to other parts of the world or ended through abuse, disease, and famine as they made their way precariously to port destinations in multiple regions around the globe.
As we take today to remember and recognize this evil slavery action of the past, we must also recommit our actions to eradicate modern–day slavery, where the new chains and shackles are hidden, and disturbingly, often under the guise of legitimate work.
In today’s Kenya, which now proudly touts itself as the “Silicon Savannah,” the new slavery routes can be digital, relating to advances in technology and artificial intelligence, with new populations to be trafficked and preyed upon. While technology is creating legitimate opportunity in the region, it has also created a new type of modern–day slavery. Known as Kenya’s “humans in the loop” (HITL), these ancestors of stolen and traded slaves are actively toiling by sorting, labeling, and sifting through disturbing data and violent imagery to improve AI for some of the world’s most prominent tech companies, including OpenAI and Meta.
These individuals experience a different type of abuse than their ancestors, forced to train AI to recognize pornography and extreme violence, including the killing of humans and images of physical abuse for hours and hours on end. Today’s modern day slave traders in Kenya are unethical outsourcing firms from the West, often paying scant more than $1 dollar per day. This abuse has gained attention, with a May 2022 ongoing legal case against Meta, and their San Francisco based sourcing firm Sama, which include allegations of human trafficking and forced labor. Even the President of Kenya, William Ruto, has waded into the controversy. In just the last few months, reports indicate that at least 144 individuals who are part of the case have been diagnosed with severe PTSD—citing harsh working conditions and mental health harm.
Not every digital worker experiences the nightmare that the Kenya’s HITL’ers have shared. Digital work platforms provide adaptability and can assist in connecting to a worldwide labor pool, opening unprecedented job and business prospects. Access to new markets and digital employment opportunities can offer flexibility to workers, while providing consumers with more convenient and affordable products.
So how do we move forward and strike a balancing act that promotes innovation and safeguarding workers' rights? How can we ensure that digital slavery doesn’t become the new scourge of 21st century?
Preventing modern–day slavery for digital workers in Kenya and other countries requires a multifaceted approach. It’s critical that employers, workers, and governments engage to address the need for policies that effectively juggle promoting innovation, safeguarding workers' rights, and maintaining the advantages of dynamic economic landscapes. Issues of legal reform, government oversight, corporate accountability, worker empowerment, and international cooperation are essential to ensure fair treatment and compliance of the growing number of digital workers around the world.
But how does one define international labor standards in the digital world and ensure a level playing field for all? How can countries like Kenya excel at both attracting foreign investment and protecting workers?
This June, global employers, along with workers and governments, will come to the UN International Labour Organization (ILO) to begin a critical two–year standard setting discussion on decent work in the platform economy. This tripartite body—the oldest organization within the United Nations system—will attempt to create a common set of recommendations and/or standards that will provide the roadmap for decent work in the digital economy for years to come.
So how will the discussion go? Employers, workers, and governments share a common vision that leveraging the platform economy’s possibilities, while ensuring decent work, offers tremendous potential. However, this is where the commonality ends.
Top concerns in these discussions will include how digital workers are classified and which parties are responsible for social protection schemes. In addition, the policy issues around algorithmic management will take center stage, with workers criticizing algorithmic management for creating unrealistic work allocation, pay disparities and excessive surveillance. Employers see algorithmic systems as essential for efficiency and scalability and would like to resist heavy regulation that may limit technological innovation. Governments in this process have varying positions—some calling for regulation to ensure fairness, while others prioritize the need to balance innovation with workers’ rights.
Today, we acknowledge that the transatlantic slave trade represents one of our darkest moments in human history. Just as our ancestors could not possibly fathom that one day our routes of trade would be digital, we should not fathom the use of modern–day slavery when it comes to the opportunities of emerging digital technology.
As former United States President Abraham Lincoln famously wrote “if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Here’s to hoping that the ILO gets the discussion on decent work in the platform economy right and that modern–day slavery in the digital realm is ended once and for all.
Editor's note: This piece was originally published here.
