Published
9 months agoon
Facebook employees took a public stand against the company’s decision to leave President Trump’s recent inflammatory posts about the Minneapolis protests on the service.
On Monday, many Facebook employees, most of whom are working remotely during the pandemic, staged a virtual walkout in which they paused their work and set up auto responses to any emails they received. This came after a number of employees had posted critical messages on Twitter over the weekend about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s handling of Trump’s posts.
On Thursday Trump said on Facebook, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” referring to protests over the death of George Floyd, a black Minneapolis resident who died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck. Trump also said that he would send in the National Guard to “get the job done right.”
Many people complained that the President’s posts encouraged violence and that Facebook should remove them.
Zuckerberg on Friday said that he had decided against removing Trump’s post because he’d considered it a “warning about state action.” Unless a post causes “imminent risk of specific harms or dangers,” he said, Facebook sides with free expression.
The decision highlighted a big divide between how Facebook and Twitter moderate posts by politicians on their services. In contrast to Facebook, Twitter had obscured Trump’s comments behind a warning label explaining that the tweet had violated its rules against “glorifying violence.”
Angered by Zuckerberg’s decision, some Facebook employees spoke out in a rare show of public dissent by staff. The walkout, joined by an unknown number of employees, followed.
In a statement, Facebook said of the walkout: “We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community. We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership. As we face additional difficult decisions around content ahead, we’ll continue seeking their honest feedback.”
The following are some of the comments employees posted on Twitter about Facebook’s response to Trump’s posts.
Sara Zhang, a Facebook product designer, said last week on Twitter: “Internally we are voicing our concerns, so far to no avail. I will personally continue to bring it up until something has changed.” On Monday, she followed up by posting these additional tweets:
@Facebook‘s recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. The policy pigeon holes us into addressing harmful user-facing content in two ways: keep content up or take it down.
— Sara Zhang (@superrrsara) June 1, 2020
David Gillis is a director of product design at Facebook:
I believe Trump’s “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” tweet (cross-posted to FB), encourages extra-judicial violence and stokes racism. Respect to @Twitter’s integrity team for making the enforcement call.
— David Gillis (@davegillis) May 31, 2020
Jake Blakeley is an augmented reality product designer for Facebook’s Oculus virtual reality unit. He backed Gillis with the following comment:
David said it much better than I could and reflects how many @Facebook employees feel right now https://t.co/mAW0NJIe1a
— Jake Blakeley (@Blake_Jakely) May 31, 2020
Similarly, a Twitter user named Josiah, a Facebook product designer, according to the user’s account, also backed Gillis:
I agree with Dave and I’m gravely concerned that if we’re only willing to enforce our standards based on (presumed) intended meaning, and never on apparent meaning, we’re always giving bad actors room to play the “I didn’t mean it that way” card. A very slippery slope. https://t.co/5qAyGIr0FV
— Josiah
(@jgulden) June 1, 2020
Andrew Crow is the head of design for Facebook’s videoconferencing device, Portal:
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
Jason Toff is director of product management at Facebook:
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
Jason Stirman is a Facebook design manager:
I don’t know what to do, but I know doing nothing is not acceptable. I’m a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark’s decision to do nothing about Trump’s recent posts, which clearly incite violence. I’m not alone inside of FB. There isn’t a neutral position on racism.
— Stirman (@stirman) May 30, 2020
Nate Butler is a Facebook product designer:
I’ve shared others posts, but I need to be clear–FB is on the wrong side of this and I can’t support their stance. Doing nothing isn’t Being Bold. Many of us feel this way.
— Nate Butler
(@iamnbutler) June 1, 2020
Ryan Freitas is a director of product design at Facebook:
Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind.
— Ryan Freitas (@ryanchris) June 1, 2020
Lauren Tan is a software engineer at Facebook:
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
Brandon Dail, a user interface engineer at Facebook, expressed his dissent and then called on other employees to do the same:
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
I am calling out my colleagues at Facebook who remain silent on our policy of allowing Trump to incite violence and spread misinformation on our platform. You are the one missing the context and making uniformed blanket statements.
— Brandon Dail (@aweary) May 30, 2020
Dail also responded to Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s head of AR/VR, who tweeted his support for the black community on Sunday. Here’s that exchange:
We need Facebook to prevent misinformation and enforce our policies about inciting violence before it hurts the Black community more than it already has.
— Brandon Dail (@aweary) June 1, 2020
We are both complicit as employees. I hope you can take a stand and use your influence to change our harmful policies.
— Brandon Dail (@aweary) June 1, 2020
Trevor Phillippi is a product designer for Messenger:
FB’s position is wrong and an insult to black people.
— Trevor Phillippi (@trevorphillippi) May 31, 2020
Nick Inzucchi, product designer, criticized Zuckerberg after another had weighed in:
Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t understand state violence. https://t.co/UfaVSlrvtO
— Nick Inzucchi (@ninzucchi) May 30, 2020