Meta has been accused of downplaying internal criticism over CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement on Monday that Dana White would be added to the board of directors. 404 media Reported About deleting comments left by employees on Workplace, which is an internal version of Facebook that employees have access to. Some of the comments focused on a video from 2022 showing White. Outspoken Trump supporter and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship. slapping his wife at a New Year's Eve party He was never charged in the altercation.
follow 404Some employees expressed excitement about the appointment or made joking comments. For example, one employee wrote “W” while another wrote “W”. “We hired Connor. (McGregor) was next up for sparring after work.” UFC fighter Connor McGregor has been found guilty of sexual assault by a civil court. after a woman accused him of rape in 2018
Others were unhappy with Meta's decision and celebratory comments from colleagues. “It is disheartening to see people in the comments celebrating a man in a video attacking his wife. And another person who was recently convicted of rape,” one employee commented. “I can excuse the person's ignorance, but Meta checked on White's status and concluded that what he did was good. 'I feel like I'm on another planet.”
Tech giants like Meta and Google rose to prominence in the early days. that allows for free internal debate and internal debate They believe it will make them a fun place to work and lead to the best product decisions. But as these companies have expanded into global corporations with hundreds of thousands of employees, They therefore largely limit open discussion or employee protest. Famous controversies such as Anti-diversity record Written by a former Google employee, it caused significant internal damage. And leadership teams across the industry are finally raising their hands.
In deleting comments about White, members of Meta's “Internal Community Relations” team explained to employees that they violated the company's internal rules for so-called conversations. “Community Participation Expectations” “I'm posting a comment here with a warning about CEE because the community has flagged several comments for moderation. It is important that we maintain a respectful work environment in which people can do their best work. We must remember that CEE applies to how we communicate with and about members of our community. Including members of our committee. Disrespect, criticism. or opposing our colleagues or board members is not consistent with CEE.”
Meta's communications team emphasizes that 404 that the company has different rules for internal discussions and rules that occur on its platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram;
Since winning re-election, Zuckerberg has gone full-court press to appease Trump, starting with Donate 1 million USD He took the position.
Following White's appointment on Monday, Zuckerberg today made a series of announcements about moderating video content that can best be described as a masterclass in political theater. The announcement states that Meta will be deprecating its fact-checking tool in favor of an X-based community log system; Leave it to a small moderation team. which will move from California to Texas “To eliminate prejudice”; Political content is allowed on Facebook and Instagram again after crackdowns in recent years. and lift restrictions on content related to discussions of gender and immigration.
On that last point, Meta has updated its community guidelines to allow this. “Allegations of mental illness or disorder when based on gender or sexual orientation It is based on political and religious discourse about transgender people and homosexuality.” It is now common practice to suggest that homosexuality is caused by mental illness.
In addition to concerns about misinformation and abuse caused by these changes, Critics also point out that Meta's algorithm is over-optimized in promoting inflammatory content that garners high engagement. Opaque algorithms can be a form of censorship. Elon Musk often tweaks his algorithms to upend whatever type of content he wants to see and suppress content he doesn't.
When combined together Zuckerberg's move kills two birds with one stone. He has long hated having to moderate content on his platform. And now he can stop doing that. And he was able to simultaneously appease Trump, who under his first administration had also threatened. Imprison Zuckerberg for the rest of his life. for moderating conservative content But by working to appease conservatives and appease Trump. He will have to deal with dissatisfaction among the more liberal employees on his team.
Trump was asked about Zuckerberg's decision to ease content restrictions during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago early Tuesday. after a reporter asked whether Trump believed Zuckerberg was making changes in response to his previous threats. Trump reply“may.”
We talk about a Big Antitrust Case With Meta headed to court in April? Trump was able to save Meta executives, including Zuckerberg, by publicly grilling them under oath.