Revolt of Facebook Employees
In response to Mark Zuckerberg's assurance that he would not moderate Donald Trump's entries, Facebook employees organized a virtual protest.
It all started with the Facebook's boss publishing a statement on his profile after George Floyd's death, in which he said that although he disagrees with Donald Trump's position on the issue (the use of force and national guard against riot participants), he will not, in any way, moderate or censor his entries, because people should know what their president is writing. To remove such a post, there would have to be a direct risk of harming someone or other violation of the "community rules" of the website. It is worth mentioning that earlier, Twitter marked some of the head of state's posts as "potentially misleading", which displeased Trump very much, who threatened to close websites that do not respect freedom of speech and censor his posts.
Based on these turbulent events, Facebook employees began (among others on Twitter) to publish negative statements about their boss's decision. Jason Stirman (Director of Research and Development) even stated that he completely disagrees with Zuckerberg's position, and that Donald Trump's posts called for violence and that "there isn't a neutral position on racism." He also added that this is not an isolated view, and many of his other colleagues also believe so. In support of his words, the day after, Ryan Freitas (Director of News Channel Design) wrote that his boss is wrong and will try to change his opinion "in the loudest possible way."
The whole discussion on this subject is fuelling the American media, because the issue of the murder of George Floyd and the rioting is now absolutely the most recognized topic in the country, but as we can see, it provokes discussion on many other fundamental issues such as freedom of speech or racism. In a recent article, Wired reminds that Mark Zuckerberg is known for his stubbornness, and he is not used to listening to anyone's opinion if he disagrees. CNN reported that Donald Trump talked to Facebook's boss on the phone after the incident, but we don't know any details.
