Facebook employees stage 'virtual' protest

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Employees set out-of-office messages in protest against Facebook's inaction to Trump's insensitive social media posts.

Facebook employees staged a ‘virtual’ protest against the company on Monday reportedly because of the executive team’s inaction to Donald Trump’s facebook post threatening violence against protesters. The U.S president threatened to send in the military to quell growing civil unrest in the US over the death of African American George Floyd who died in police custody.

Facebook Employees were angered when founder Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday evening that the platform would not take any action against Trump’s post, which quoted a racist 1960s police chief. Meanwhile Twitter chose to the post behind a warning label saying “in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts”

According to The New York Times, Facebook employees reacted with a virtual protest in which requested time off and set "out of office" messages with a coordinated statement explaining their action.

Since then, Facebook has issued the following statement. “We recognise 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 debacle speaks to how sensitive employees can be to the action or even inaction of their leadership teams during seismic events impacting the social discourse. 
 

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