Some Facebook employees critical of chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s decision not to act on President Donald Trump’s inflammatory comments about U.S. protests went public on Twitter, praising the rival social media firm for acting, and rebuking their own employer.
Facebook employees critical of chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg’s decision not to act on U.S. President Donald Trump’s inflammatory comments about protests across the United States went public on Twitter, praising the rival social media firm for acting and rebuking their own employer.
Some took part in a virtual walkout on Monday, abandoning their work-from-home desks in a pandemic-era protest reminiscent of a walkout at Alphabet Inc.’s Google in 2018 over sexual harassment.
It was a rare case of high-level employees publicly taking their CEO to task, with at least three of the dozen critical posts seen by Reuters coming from people who identified themselves as senior managers.
“Mark is wrong, and I will endeavour in the loudest possible way to change his mind,” wrote Ryan Freitas, whose Twitter account identifies him as director of product design for Facebook’s News Feed. He added he had mobilized, “50+ likeminded folks” to lobby for internal change.
Sara Zhang, a product designer who joined Facebook in April, according to her LinkedIn profile, tweeted that she would participate in the virtual walkout “in solidarity with the black community.”
As allies we must stand in the way of danger, not behind.
I will be participating in today’s virtual walkout in solidarity with the black community inside and outside FB.#BlackLivesMatter
“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,” she said.
Katie Zhu, a product manager at Instagram, tweeted a screenshot showing she had entered “#BLACKLIVESMATTER” to describe her request for time off on Monday.
i’m taking PTO from @instagram by @facebook today for #BlackLivesMatter. i’m deeply disappointed & ashamed in how the company is showing up the world rn. fb fam – if u feel similarly, join me & let’s organize. put your ~$~zuck bucks~$ where ur tweets are. support Black-led orgs!! pic.twitter.com/TXnD5qPNer
A spokesperson said the company is open to employee feedback.
“We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our black community,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone wrote in a text, referring to company employees.
“We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership. As we face additional difficult decisions around