Facebook Employees Take the Rare Step to Call Out Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook Employees Take the Rare Step to Call Out Mark Zuckerberg

4 years ago
Anonymous $-9GJQVHNr8

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-employees-rare-step-call-out-mark-zuckerberg/

What happens when an immovable object meets a disgruntled workforce? We’re about to find out at Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has consistently refused to budge from allowing politicians—most conspicuously, Donald J. Trump—to post content that would violate the company’s rules against harm and misinformation. In dealing with recent Trump pronouncements promoting misinformation about voting and using the language of racism to encourage the shooting of protesters, Zuckerberg has chosen to leave posts (mostly cross-posted tweets) unfettered. Even Twitter, which previously gave Trump similar leeway, now warns users before they can see those Trump misrepresentations.

Now, a few Facebook employees have taken the rare step of speaking out publicly against their boss. “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,” tweeted Jason Stirman, an R&D executive who previously worked at Twitter and Medium. Another Facebook exec, Ryan Freitas, director of News Feed product design, wrote, “Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind.” One engineer, Lauren Tan, tweeted, “Facebook’s inaction in taking down Trump’s post inciting violence makes me ashamed to work here.”