Facebook employees blast Zuckerberg's decision to allow Trump's looting post

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

Numerous Facebook employees are giving CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision to allow a recent post by President Trump a dislike.

Staffers at the social media giant are publicly rebuking the company for taking no action against a recent post from Trump that Twitter flagged for violating its rules against glorifying violence, CNBC reports. "When the looting starts, the shooting starts," Trump wrote in a recent tweet and Facebook post about the Minneapolis protests over the death of George Floyd. While Twitter slapped the tweet with a warning and hid it, Facebook let the post stay online as is.

Jason Toff, a Facebook director of product management, tweeted, "I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we're showing up." He added that "the majority of coworkers I've spoken to feel the same way."

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Another employee, design manager Jason Stirman, tweeted that he "completely disagrees with Mark's decision to do nothing about Trump's recent posts, which clearly incite violence," while Ryan Freitas, a director of product design, wrote that "Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind," and Andrew Crow, Portal head of design, said "giving a platform to incite violence and spread disinformation is unacceptable, regardless who you are or if it's newsworthy."

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan noted it was "incredible" to see Facebook employees rebuking Zuckerberg, as you "very rarely see Facebook employees speak out."

Zuckerberg on Friday defended his decision on Trump's posts, writing that "our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies." Axios reports that Zuckerberg recently told Trump in a call that "he personally disagreed with the president's incendiary rhetoric and that by using language like this, Trump was putting Facebook in a difficult position."

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.