Facebook Employees Outraged After Company Reportedly Bans Them From Supporting Black Lives Matter In Profile Pictures
While Mark Zuckerberg has been publicly supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and decried the Breonna Taylor decision in a company all-hands meeting this week, Facebook allegedly doesn't want its employees to express their political views on its platform.
According to Mother Jones, the company issued new rules this week barring employees from using their profile pictures on the company’s internal social network to show support for Black Lives Matter or other causes.
"Personal expression is a valuable part of our culture, and our hope is to preserve the ability for you to share your thoughts on different issues, including social issues, in moderated groups or within the space of your own profile," an internal memo to employees reads.
"However, that doesn’t mean you should broadcast your beliefs into all of your work interactions without any context."
Facebook staffers can only post a picture of themselves or their initials on the platform, and can’t use political images as their profile photos. Facebook will offer some pre-approved frames that can be added to profile pictures, including a Black Lives Matter-themed one.
The move has many employees outraged, and saying that the company is censoring their free speech.
“What happens when we go back to the office? Will my appearance have to be neutral and ‘not include clothing, signage or language that are connected to a social or political issue’?” one employee allegedly wrote, quoting a clarification of the new rule by a member of Facebook’s internal communications team.
