While we would all love to see Twitter just ban all the Nazis once and for all, the platform has, in recent weeks, at least begun to take small steps toward creating a less egregiously dangerous online space. Most notably, they flagged one of Donald Trump’s tweets for glorifying violence. They didn’t remove the tweet, in which Trump repeats a decades-old racist adage about looting leading to shooting, but at least they didn’t do absolutely nothing. And in that way, they set themselves apart from Facebook.
Trump cross-posted his looting tweet to Facebook, where it was not flagged. Mark Zuckerberg went on Fox News of all places to talk about how they “have a different policy than Twitter” on the issue of fact-checking. In a statement later posted to Facebook, Zuckerberg said he chose to leave Trump’s post up because the site should “enable as much expression as possible.”
As it turns out, many of Zuckerberg’s own employees do not agree with his decision. In an unprecedented move at the company, Facebook employees staged a “virtual walkout” and shared messages of dissent on social media.
Nothing like this has ever happened at Facebook. Employees always voiced dissent internally. Today’s walkout is a sign that anger is spilling over, and that employees don’t feel heard by Zuckerberg/Sandberg https://t.co/bNqso94eJn
— Sheera Frenkel (@sheeraf) June 1, 2020
According to the New York Times, there are petitions circling internally “calling for the company to make personnel changes and for more diversity of voices among Mr. Zuckerberg’s top lieutenants.” At least two senior employees have told their managers they’ll quit if Zuckerberg doesn’t take down Trump’s inflammatory post.
Some are also calling for Zuckerberg to fire Facebook’s vice president of global policy, Joel Kaplan, who “is seen as being a strong conservative voice within the company. In 2018, he upset some employees when he sat in the front row of the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was a close friend.”
I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we’re showing up. The majority of coworkers I’ve spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard.
— Jason Toff (@jasontoff) June 1, 2020
Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind.
— Ryan Freitas (@ryanchris) June 1, 2020
Facebook’s inaction in taking down Trump’s post inciting violence makes me ashamed to work here. I absolutely disagree with it. I enjoy the technical parts of my job and working alongside smart/kind people, but this isn’t right. Silence is complicity.
— Lauren Tan ✨😷✨ (@sugarpirate_) May 29, 2020
Disappointed that, again, I need to call this out: Trump’s glorification of violence on Facebook is disgusting and it should absolutely be flagged or removed from our platforms. I categorically disagree with any policy that does otherwise.
— Brandon Dail (@aweary) May 29, 2020
Censoring information that might help people see the complete picture *is* wrong. But giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable, regardless who you are or if it’s newsworthy. I disagree with Mark’s position and will work to make change happen.
— Andrew (@AndrewCrow) June 1, 2020
Late Sunday night, Zuckerberg posted a “We stand with the Black community” message to his Facebook account and pledged to donate $10 million of Facebook’s money “to groups working on racial justice.” Which is a fine step but for one thing, $10 million dollars is drop in Facebook’s bucket. This would also mean more if it didn’t appear to hastily come the night before a mass public protest. And finally, you cannot throw money at a problem and claim to “stand with the Black community” when your own employees are protesting over how severely you have recently let that community down.
(via New York Times, image: ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP/Getty Images)
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Published: Jun 1, 2020 06:25 pm