Facebook Employees Stage ‘Virtual Walkout’ in Protest of Trump’s Posts on Looting

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Facebook employees on Monday staged a “virtual walkout” in protest of the company’s policies regarding recent posts by President Donald Trump.
These employees expressed disappointment and shame in the decision by Facebook’s leaders to leave up a Thursday post from Trump in which the president said that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Facebook employees on Monday staged a “virtual walkout” in protest of the company’s policies regarding recent posts by President Donald Trump.

Dozens of employees took to Twitter to publicly announce their participation in the protest, referring to the virtual walkout with #TakeAction. These employees expressed disappointment and shame in the decision by Facebook’s leaders to leave up a Thursday post from Trump in which the president said that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

i'm taking PTO from @instagram by @facebook today for #BlackLivesMatter. i'm deeply disappointed & ashamed in how the company is showing up the world rn. fb fam - if u feel similarly, join me & let's organize. put your ~$~zuck bucks~$ where ur tweets are. support Black-led orgs!! pic.twitter.com/TXnD5qPNer
— #BLACKLIVESMATTER 🖤 (@ktzhu) June 1, 2020

The employees said that they believed this type of post violates Facebook’s platform standards. The company’s policies state that Facebook will “remove language that incites or facilitates serious violence.”

Today I am participating in a virtual walkout over Facebook’s recent decisions not to moderate posts that we believe violate our platform standards.
— Margo Very Stern (@wordstern) June 1, 2020

Trump posted his controversial statement on both Facebook and Twitter. Unlike Facebook, Twitter placed a label warning users about the president’s violent rhetoric, which they have to dismiss before they can view his tweet. Twitter is also preventing users from liking or retweeting the tweet.

@Facebook's recent decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. The policy pigeon holes us into addressing harmful user-facing content in two ways: keep content up or take it down.
— Sara Zhang (@superrrsara) June 1, 2020

The walkout comes after a number of Facebook employees publicly criticized the company for its decision not to moderate Trump’s posts.

.@Facebook's decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. It pigeonholes us to address harmful user-facing content in 2 ways: keep content up or take it down. We implore leadership to revisit it. #TakeAction #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/rZ2kadllVq
— Angela Pham (@angelapham) June 1, 2020

“We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community,” a Facebook spokesman told CNBC in a statement Monday. “We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership. As we face additional difficult decisions around content ahead, we’ll continue seeking their honest feedback.”

.@Facebook's decision to not act on posts that incite violence ignores other options to keep our community safe. It pigeonholes us to address harmful user-facing content in 2 ways: keep content up or take it down. We implore leadership to revisit it. #TakeAction #BlackLivesMatter
— Jordan Craven (@cravennn) June 1, 2020

Two senior Facebook employees have informed their managers that they plan to resign if CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not reverse his decision to not moderate Trump’s posts, The New York Times reported Monday.

I believe that this is a self-imposed constraint and implore leadership to revisit the solution #TakeAction and reduce harm pic.twitter.com/MV26R6291A
— Dani (@Dani_MisfitJinx) June 1, 2020

This story first appeared on CNBC.com. More from CNBC: