Top Facebook executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are holding a town hall on Friday to address employees’ outrage over an executive’s support of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Facebook’s global policy head Joel Kaplan, who is reportedly close friends with Kavanaugh, appeared in support of the Supreme Court nominee during his fiery testimony last week when he defended himself against allegations of sexual assault.
Both Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg have attempted to weigh in on the controversy in recent days through an internal comment thread and Zuckerberg’s question-and-answer session last week.
But employees’ criticism of Kaplan’s appearance has only swelled in recent days and staff are viewing the decision as reflective of the company’s stance on the #MeToo movement, the WSJ reported.
“This fire has been burning for a full week now,” one employee told the WSJ.
Facebook offered to “embed” employees, for free, in Presidential campaign offices to help them use the platform effectively. Clinton’s campaign said no. Trump’s said yes, and Facebook employees helped his campaign craft messages. Although Trump’s language was openly hostile to ethnic minorities, inside Facebook his behavior felt, to some executives, like just part of the distant cesspool of Washington. Americans always seemed to be choosing between a hated Republican and a hated Democrat, and Trump’s descriptions of Mexicans as rapists was simply an extension of that.
During the campaign, Trump used Facebook to raise two hundred and eighty million dollars. Just days before the election, his team paid for a voter-suppression effort on the platform. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, it targeted three Democratic constituencies—“idealistic white liberals, young women, and African Americans”—sending them videos precisely tailored to discourage them from turning out for Clinton. Theresa Hong, the Trump campaign’s digital-content director, later told an interviewer, “Without Facebook we wouldn’t have won.”
Finishing up and really enjoying this book https://www.amazon.com/Arguments-Deleting-Social-Media-Accounts/dp/125019668X where this topic and many more are discussed to illustrate that Facebook is evil. Not that I needed convincing to close my account as I came to similar conclusions earlier, but seeing it clearly spelled out was helpful.
Facebook’s whole ‘when this place does what it’s supposed to…’ ad campaign reminded me of BP’s ‘apologies’ in the wake of the Gulf spill. Fucking weak, bullshit PR to try to avoid consequences.
People need to just get the hell off of Facebook. But they won’t.
It seems like Zuckerberg, Sandberg and other execs are missing what many of their employees are upset about.
(this is also happening outside of FB)
To many people who have been sexually assaulted, raped, victims of domestic violence, etc…, this is NOT a partisan issue. It only seems that way b/c one party seems to take these issues seriously and pass laws that support those affected by one or a combination of them.
To those who have been sexually assaulted, raped, victims of domestic violence, it’s about our safety and possibly about life or death. It’s about not being dismissed and minimized and condescended to. Or attacked, laughed at or judged.
Zuckerburg, Sandberg and exec team have been pretty consistent in their cluelessness over this and many other issues.
I would have thought that Sandberg, w/ her experience of her husband’s sudden death, would have empathy for the pain of others…but apparently not.
Well, the Millennials over at Facebook are going to see if they indeed have any muscles to flex. I hope so.