![]() The company has long been criticized for selectively regulating what’s posted on its platforms, allowing paid ads to remain online no matter what. One Facebook employee who spoke to The Intercept on condition of anonymity said he saw the blacklisting feature, with a suggested use case around unionization, as a clear effort to give employers the ability to exert control over employees. The incident is the latest example of a deeply divided office environment at Facebook, at which a growing number of engineers and designers are openly expressing distrust in leadership. The feature was only in early development and we’ve pulled any plans to roll it out while we think through next steps.” When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Facebook said, “While these kinds of content moderation tools are useful for companies, this example was poorly chosen and should never have been used. Anand apologized for the “unionize” example, noting that “censoring users is not the purpose of this feature and Workplace’s ambition is to give everyone a voice, while maintaining a respectful work environment.” He added that the “oversight” was likely “lack of context versus bad intent from anyone on the team.” But on Thursday afternoon, after the presentation had been deleted, Karandeep Anand, a product manager for Facebook Workplace, weighed in on an internal company board. The following day, the company presentation was taken down. Facebook employees sparked a flurry of posts denouncing the feature, with several commenting in disbelief that the company would overtly pitch “unionize” as a topic to be blacklisted. The suggestion that Facebook is actively building tools designed to suppress labor organizing quickly caused a stir at the Menlo Park, California-based company. The application is also used by the Singapore government, Discovery Communications, Starbucks, and Campbell Soup Corporation. Facebook Workplace is currently used by major employers such as Walmart, which is notorious for its active efforts to suppress labor organizing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |