Published 16:28 IST, November 9th 2019
Facebook apologises after workers complain about racist behaviour
The social media giant, Facebook apologized on November 8 after black employees shared their feelings on facing bias at the workplace through an anonymous post.
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The social media giant, Facebook apologized on November 8 after black employees shared their feelings on facing bias at the workplace, online. An anonymous post was shared at Medium by an 'FB Blind' which disclosed the perceived insults by the managers, white employees, and even the human resources department for the black employees. Bertie Thompson, the corporate communications vice president said, 'we are sorry' and criticised the behaviour which was confessed by the post. Thompson further said that the incidents are against the policies on Facebook.
Thompson said, “No one at Facebook, or anywhere, should have to put up with this behavior. We are sorry. It goes against everything that we stand for as a company. We're listening and working hard to do better”.
Incidents described in the post
In the Medium post, incidents were described by the Facebook employees being targeted for negative performance reviews along with insulting comments. The post also said that the black colleagues are 'sad, angry, oppressed, and depressed from the inside'. The also elaborated that the regular occurrences of snide comments have made them feel like they do not belong on Facebook. The post also referred to as aggressions being 'macro and micro'. This post also came amidst the collective criticism received by Facebook for their work policies along with arising questions of ethics on its stance of political ads. The post also said that the reason for employees choosing to be anonymous is because the company creates a hostile culture and 'non-white' are made to feel fear for their job.
Zuckerberg defends 'free speech'
Facebook says it won't remove 'newsworthy' content that goes against its community standards. Zuckerberg has defended Facebook's refusal to take down content it considers newsworthy “even if it goes against our standards.” Technology companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter are all reportedly trying to be in charge of internet content but at the same time, they are also avoiding infringing on the First Amendment rights. This has swung recently toward restricting hateful speech that could spawn violence. The shift follows mass shootings in which the suspects have posted racist screeds online or otherwise expressed hateful views or streamed images of attacks. However, Zuckerberg has also compared the social media's capability to start a dialogue with the 'fourth estate' which is referred for the media.
(With PTI inputs)
15:42 IST, November 9th 2019