An internal debate among Facebook employees led to the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stepping in and reprimanding them.
One Facebook staffer shared a post this week on the company’s internal communications channel titled “In Support of Law Enforcement and Black Lives,” which argued that racism isn’t a motivating factor behind recorded instances of police shootings. It also challenged “critical race theory,” a theory taught in social sciences about systemic racism, according to a Daily Beast report.
“My heart goes out to the Blake family,” the staffer wrote following violent riots that broke out in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man. “It also goes out to the well-intentioned law enforcement officers who have been victimized by society’s conformity to a lie. What if racial, economic, crime, and incarceration gaps cannot close without addressing personal responsibility and adherence to the law?”
The staffer deleted outraged responses to the post that he said were “unproductive and overwhelming to me” and noted, “Many of you found this to be offensive, which was not my intent.”
Reactions to the post were so strong that Zuckerberg responded to the blog post.
“We designed our respectful communications policy to allow people to discuss very different viewpoints. But I’m concerned that some people are doing that without appreciating the impact their words are having on our Black community,” Zuckerberg replied.
Zuckerberg added in his reply that Facebook would establish “clear rules and strong moderation” to discourage employees from sharing opinions on controversial subjects that others could find offensive.
“You won’t be able to discuss highly charged content broadly in open groups. As you know, we deeply value expression and open discussion, but I don’t believe people working here should have to be confronted with divisive conversations while they’re trying to work,” the CEO continued.
Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the report was accurate but declined to provide further comment.
