Facebook workers criticize Zuckerberg's inaction over Trump
Senior Facebook employees used Twitter over the weekend to express their dismay at Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to take action on incendiary comments posted to the social network by President Donald Trump.
After the president tweeted a message with the words "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" in response to protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Twitter for the first time obscured one of his posts, marking it with a warning that it breached service rules by glorifying violence. Facebook's response to the same content, in a post from Zuckerberg on Friday, was to say, "We think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force."
Several senior figures at Facebook expressed strong disagreement.
"Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind," said Ryan Freitas, director of product design for Facebook's News Feed. "I apologize if you were waiting for me to have some sort of external opinion. I focused on organizing 50+ likeminded folks into something that looks like internal change."
"Giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable, regardless who you are or if it's newsworthy," wrote Andrew Crow, head of design for Facebook's Portal product line.
Joining them with individual messages against the passive policy were Design Manager Jason Stirman, Director of Product Management Jason Toff and Product Designer Sara Zhang, who tweeted that "Internally we are voicing our concerns, so far to no avail."
Read more: Facebook Appeases Trump as Twitter Spars With Him Over Posts
In a post late Sunday, Zuckerberg said Facebook is committing "an additional $10 million to groups working on racial justice." Noting that the company "has more work to do to keep people safe and ensure our systems don't amplify bias," the CEO did not address the concern surrounding Trump's posts on the platform.
It's rare for Facebook employees to speak publicly about internal activity unless they have permission from the communications team. The company in the past has punished and discouraged leaking. Now, Facebook has changed that approach.
"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," a Facebook spokesperson said Monday in a statement. "As we face additional difficult decisions around content ahead, we'll continue seeking their honest feedback."