Work-from-home Facebook employees are staging virtual walkouts, while some have resigned, in protest of FB CEO’s inaction on Trump’s inflammatory posts.
Background to Trump’s Incendiary Posts and FB Employee Walkouts
The Minneapolis demonstrations that started out as a cry for justice over the senseless killing of George Floyd has spread into becoming a Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement throughout the country, and in other major cities across the globe. However, instead of acting as the nation’s leader by listening to the grievances being aired by the protesters, Trump considers the growing demonstrations as an affront to his powers as president of the U.S.
Trump Spreading Messages in Praise of Violence
Rather than spread messages of unity and calm, Trump has been posting FB content being shared by his blind supporters, in about 29.75 million Facebook accounts; followers who like himself are racists, but to which he has no control over any actions they may take to show their support for Trump.
Although Twitter used to be Trump’s go-to social media site for incendiary messages and in spreading false information, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey approved adding fact-check labels and of banning Trump tweets that only encourage violence that could have been spurred by agitators.
While local and world leaders from various sectors are denouncing Trump for threatening the use of military might and encouraging the use of brutal force, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to care that Trump’s FB media posts are doing more harm than good.
The Director of Facebook’s product management, Jason Toff, had tweeted
“I am not proud of how we at Facebook are showing up.” “Majority of co-workers I have spoken to, feel the same way and we are making our voices heard.”
Timothy Aveni, an engineer who does work on Facebook’s misinformation tools, announced his decision to resign. In a post in his FB account he said FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg had vowed to us that he would draw the line at speeches that call for violence. Apparently, Aveni came to realize that Zuckerberg’s promise was a lie.