Employees of the social media giant, Facebook, involved in taking down inappropriate content are threatening to quit. This followed after they were ordered by Mark Zuckerberg to leave the original posts of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. The post mentions the total banning of Muslims from entering the U.S.
According to the report by the Wall Street Journal, a great number of employees were offended by the post. Despite the clear violations towards policy on hate speech, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg did not give the go signal to take it down. The employees were told to leave the post as it is.
While a number of employees were against the presidential nominee's hate speech, some were backing up Zuckerberg's decision. Monika Bickert, the head of global policy management, supports the CEO's decision. She says that they wanted to be fair for the upcoming election.
Some employees took their concerns to their superiors while some opted in making internal groups that would air their objections. A Facebook spokesperson clarified the issue that when approving and censoring content, they had to take the context into consideration. They say that a certain judgement had to be followed since social media posts would embody presidential nominees and this would affect the vote of the public.
Trump's statement on Facebook dated back as early as December and has increased in frequency ever since. Zuckerberg has made various appearances where, in one instance, he was asked by a Muslim town hall meeting attendee about Trump's comments and remarks. The Facebook CEO gave an answer that entails looking on both sides of the coin. According to him, even if it were examples of hate speech, removing them had their fair share of implications. The Facebook CEO continues to receive a lot of heat. Trump's posts are not stopping and Zuckerberg stands firm on his decision.
