The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Unease at Facebook, several employees consider Zuckerberg too conciliatory with Trump

2020-06-02T20:46:02.854Z


Several employees of the firm speak out publicly to call to police the messages of the American president.While Donald Trump and Twitter are at war, Facebook's inaction is causing internal turmoil. The clash between Twitter and Donald Trump splashes Facebook, in a delicate position since its boss, Mark Zuckerberg, refused to sanction polemical remarks of the president and is publicly disavowed by employees - a rare phenomenon in Silicon Valley. A feeling reinforced by press revelations last Friday con...


While Donald Trump and Twitter are at war, Facebook's inaction is causing internal turmoil. The clash between Twitter and Donald Trump splashes Facebook, in a delicate position since its boss, Mark Zuckerberg, refused to sanction polemical remarks of the president and is publicly disavowed by employees - a rare phenomenon in Silicon Valley. A feeling reinforced by press revelations last Friday concerning a telephone exchange between the two men.

"Mark is wrong, and I'm going to try to make him change my mind by making a lot of noise," tweeted Ryan Freitas, design director for Facebook's News Feed, on Sunday.

Two contested Zuckerberg positions

On Monday, the movement gained momentum with an online strike by several employees, including Sara Zhang, who said on Twitter: "We must face the danger, not stay under cover. Originally, two unprecedented Twitter interventions last week. The platform first reported two tweets from the US president on postal voting with the mention "check the facts".

Mark Zuckerberg then reminded Fox News that the platforms, he said, should not play the role of "arbiters of truth online" - an interview retweeted by Donald Trump.

Then, on Friday, Twitter masked another message from the White House tenant, about the clashes in Minneapolis, for violating the network's guidelines on condoning violence. "The looting will be immediately greeted by bullets," said Donald Trump.

The rebels of the network

These comments also appear on Facebook, but Mark Zuckerberg decided to leave them visible, "after hesitating all day". In a publication on his profile, he said that he condemned the "cleavage and inflammatory rhetoric" of the president as "personal", but did not intend to delete the messages, in the name of freedom of expression and the public interest in get informed.

This has been an incredibly tough week after a string of tough weeks. The killing of George Floyd showed yet again that ...

Gepostet von Mark Zuckerberg am Freitag, 29. May 2020

Twitter and Facebook have set up systems to combat dangerous content (hate speech, harassment, etc.) and against disinformation. But Facebook exempts political figures and candidates from the essential of these measures.

Newsletter - The essentials of the news

Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more

"I don't know what to do, but I know that doing nothing is not acceptable. I’m a Facebook employee who completely disagrees with Mark’s decision to do nothing about Trump’s recent publications, which clearly incite violence, ”tweeted Jason Stirman, a research and development officer for the company, on Saturday. via Twitter. “I'm not alone at Facebook. There is no neutral position on racism, ”he adds.

More options on Twitter

Several other employees took the floor this weekend. "I think Trump's tweet (on looting) encourages extrajudicial violence and fuels racism. Respect to the Twitter team, ”wrote designer David Gillis.

I believe Trump's “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” tweet (cross-posted to FB), encourages extra-judicial violence and stokes racism. Respect to @ Twitter's integrity team for making the enforcement call.

- David Gillis (@davegillis) May 31, 2020

Sara Zhang and other employees are calling for a change in the rules, which offer only two choices: leave the content or remove it. "Facebook's decision not to act on posts that incite violence ignores other options for keeping our community safe," she notes.

On Twitter, the president's message in question remained visible despite the warning, but users cannot retweet, "like" or respond to it.

The question now arises as to the ability of Facebook's all-new “Supreme Court” to intervene. He is supposed to have the final say on whether or not to maintain controversial content, independently.

The network giant is directly affected by Donald Trump's counterattack against Twitter. The US president signed a decree on Thursday attacking a fundamental law of the American internet, Section 230, which offers digital platforms immunity from any legal action related to content published by third parties. And gives them the freedom to intervene as they please to police the exchanges.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2020-06-02

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-14T03:52:32.521Z
News/Politics 2024-02-05T03:50:13.765Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.