The United States of America aren’t so united at the moment, with protests erupting in most of the country after George Floyd was killed in a shameless display of racist police brutality. Now, in a rare public display, Facebook employees have decided to stage their own “virtual protest” after Mark Zuckerberg’s response, or better yet, lack of it, in regard to President Trump’s statements.
After George Floyd met his ill fate, public’s rage caused mass countrywide protests, which President Donald Trump talked about in classic Trump fashion. From regarding protesters as “Thugs” to making statements like “When the looting start, the shooting starts”, Trump threatened to call the National Guard to control the protests, which took a violent turn in various regions.
Trump later came out with a clarification, where he said, “Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night – or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means.”
Still, the damage was already done, and Twitter went ahead and marked the tweet for “glorifying violence”, but did not delete it.
Facebook had a different reaction to the whole thing. Which was none. Yes, Facebook decided to not touch the statements at all. Mark Zuckerberg later explained in a statement the thought process behind the decision, where he said that Facebook “allows discussion around state use of force, although I think today’s situation raises important questions about what potential limits of that discussion should be.” “We think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force,” he added.
However, it seems that Facebook employees are not content with the explanation, who planned a “virtual walkout” in retaliation. The employees logged into Facebook’s systems and requested time off for supporting protesters across the country. The walkout was “virtual” because most of the company’s employees are working from home due to COVID 19.
In light of the walkout, Zuckerberg has shifted his meeting with his employees, which was supposed to take place on Thursday, to Tuesday. “We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community,” said a Facebook spokesperson, adding, “We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership.”
Facebook employees are also asking for the racial diversification of the working force, something that the company has been struggling with from a long time.
Facebook has been accused of interfering with political matters at multiple occasions. The Cambridge Analytica scandal and Mark Zuckerberg’s appearance before the U.S. Congress will be etched in the company’s history. However, this is one of the rare times the company is being scrutinized for “not doing something”.
