Coronavirus, racism, elections: Facebook announced Thursday that it would change the moderation rules of its intranet, in order to prevent these subjects, at the heart of abrasive debates in American society, from provoking conflicts between its employees.
Its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, discussed the initiative during a question-and-answer session with employees of the social network.
"What we have heard from our employees is that they want to have the opportunity to participate in debates on social and political issues rather than having them unexpectedly appear in their work platform
,
"
said Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborne told AFP.
“We are updating our policies and our work tools to ensure that our culture remains respectful and inclusive,”
he said.
Read also: Facebook doubles its profits despite the boycott and the recession
Facebook also ensures to strengthen its policy on harassment so that minority employees are not confronted with a hostile work environment.
Pandemic obliges, the transition to teleworking has accelerated the use of internal exchange platforms on which the tensions of an American society in the midst of a debate on racism and the management of the coronavirus can show.
Read also: The boycott of Facebook by advertisers spreads and affects other social networks
With less than fifty days of the US presidential election, Facebook's role in spreading fake news or hate messages is also a subject on which employees may have strong personal opinions.
According to CNBC, Google, which has extended telecommuting in its group until 2021, has also asked its employees to manage their internal conversations on chat rooms more wisely because of complaints about violent or abusive messages.