Facebook employee quits; says company is on 'wrong side of history'

On September 8, a Facebook employee lashed out at companies’ policies and accused social media platform of being on “wrong side of history”. Outrd, 28-year-old software engineer quit giant firm, saying, it was “profiting off hate”. "I'm quitting because I can longer stomach contributing to an organization that is profiting off hate in US and globally," Ashok Chandwaney said in a Facebook post that was public. employee also highlighted Facebook's several content moderation decisions in recent past despite civil rights advocates pressurizing social media platform to control hate speech and disinformation. 

Earlier in May, Facebook earned backlash for letting US President Donald Trump’s tweet "when looting starts, shooting starts" stay on social media. Zuckerberg insisted that words did t, in fact, violate company’s policies and regulations or incited violence. Twitter, on or hand, flagged tweet as ‘glorifying violence’. In ar instance, Facebook also refused to look into  Kesha Guard militia event ahead of fatal shooting at Wisconsin during Defund Police protests.

Facebook, which eventually took down event after shooting, cited "operational mistake” as reason for delay in action. " actions that have been taken are easy and could be interpreted as impactful because y make us look good, rar than impactful because y will make substantive change,"  employee wrote in post. 

However, Chandwaney said, “every day ' looting starts, shooting starts' stays up is a day that we choose to minimize regulatory risk at expense of safety of Black, Indigeus, and people of colour.”

He added, “Violent hate groups and far-right militias are out re, and y’re using Facebook to recruit and radicalize people who will go on to commit violent hate crimes. So where’s metric about this?”

He added, “I've learned to eng honestly and erly with folks who want to have conversations with me at work. lack of openness on Facebook's part when it comes to matter of hate on platform throws this idea into sharp relief.”

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Facebook spokeswoman Liz Bourgeois reportedly said that Facebook never benefited from “hate." She highlighted that company spent millions of dollars to keep community safe and had guidelines inlace and partnership with experts to review those policies from time to time. She clarified that Facebook removed millions of hate speech posts and posts related to hate organizations, 96 percent of which were detected by Facebook without being reported.

Brands urge Facebook to address "hate speech"

However, due to Facebook’s policies that have been in middle of controversy, brands like rth Face and Ben & Jerry’s quit purchasing advertising from Facebook in July 2020, include g several or companies urging Facebook to address hate speech on its platform. President of civil rights advocacy group Colour of Change, Rashad Robinson hailed Chandwaney's decision. He wrote in a tweet, “Facebook has had ample opportunity to address hate and misinformation. Instead of protecting communities of color, y've chosen to cozy up to people in power.”

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