Facebook employees’ walkout staged to protest Trump posts

— Dozens of Facebook employees, in rare public criticism Monday of their own company, protested executives’ decision not to do anything about inflammatory posts that President Donald Trump had placed on the giant social media platform over the past week.

The employees, who said they refused to work in order to show their support for dem- onstrators across the country, added an automated message to their digital profiles and email responses saying that they were out of the office in a show of protest.

The protest group — con- ducting a virtual “walkout” of sorts becausemostFacebook employees are working from home because of the corona- virus pandemic — was one of a number of clusters of employees pressing Facebook execu- tives to take a tougher stand on Trump’s posts.

Inside the company, staff members have circulated peti- tions and threatened to resign, and a number of employees wrote publicly about their unhappiness on Twitter and elsewhere. More than a dozen current and former employees have described the unrest as the most serious challenge to the leadership of Mark

Zuckerberg, the chief executive, since the company was founded 15 years ago.

“The hateful rhetoric advocating violence against black demonstrators by the US President does not warrant defense under the guise of freedom of expression,” one Facebook employee wrote in an internal message board, according to a copy of the text viewed by The New York Times.

T he employee added: “Along with Black employees in the company, and all persons with a moral conscience, I am calling for Mark to immediately take down the President’s post advocating violence, murder and imminent threat against Black people.”