The daily business briefing: June 2, 2020

Facebook workers stage virtual "walkout" over Trump posts, CBO projects $7.9 trillion coronavirus hit through 2030, and more

Mark Zuckerberg in NY
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

1. Facebook employees protest handling of Trump posts

Facebook employees staged a virtual "walkout" and vented frustration via Twitter over Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision to leave up President Trump's posts perceived as a call to shoot looters. Twitter demoted a Trump tweet that said, "when the looting starts the shooting starts," and posted a warning saying the tweet ran counter to Twitter policies against glorifying violence. Zuckerberg explained in a Friday Facebook post that he was leaving the post up because Facebook tries to "enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harm." One of the frustrated Facebook employees, design manager Jason Stirman, said he "completely disagrees with Mark's decision to do nothing about Trump's recent posts, which clearly incite violence ... There isn't a neutral position on racism."

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.