Scientists Funded By Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Accuse Facebook Of Ignoring Its Own Policies On Trump Post

TOPLINE

More than 140 scientists funded by the Chan Zuckerberg initiative (CZI) publicly called on Facebook to tighten its policies on “misinformation and incendiary language,” joining staff anger at CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s inaction on a post by President Trump that threatened violence towards anti-racism protesters.

KEY FACTS

News peg

President Trump invoked the racially charged phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” on Monday, in response to George Floyd protests in Minneapolis. Twitter swiftly flagged the post with a content warning for glorifying violence. Facebook left the post up without a warning, with Zuckerberg defending his decision in a later post, saying that the President’s words did not incite violence. Trump’s words have shattered the illusion of a united front between Facebook staff, who are making a stand against Trump’s “hateful rhetoric”, and management, which is seeking to uphold its policies. 

Crucial quote

The scientists wrote: “The spread of news that is not vetted for factual accuracy leads to confusion and a mistrust of experts.

“Thus, like many, we were disconcerted to see that Facebook has not followed their own policies in regards to President Trump, who has used the Facebook platform to spread both misinformation and incendiary statements. For example, his statement “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” is a clear statement of inciting violence.”

Key background

Dozens of Facebook employees revolted against Zuckerberg’s stance on Trump’s post, staging a virtual walkout on Monday and publicly criticising the CEO’s decision not to take the post down on rival platform Twitter, which did flag the post for glorifying violence. One engineer publicly quit over it. Following the complaints, Zuckerberg on Friday said the platform will consider changing its content policy to add a warning on posts similar to Trump’s. He said: “We’re going to review potential options for handling violating or partially-violating content aside from the binary leave-it-up or take-it-down decisions.”

Further reading

After Employee Backlash Over Trump Posts, Zuckerberg Promises To Review Content Moderation Policies (Forbes)

Facebook Employees Break Ranks To Criticize Mark Zuckerberg For Not Tackling Trump’s ‘Shooting’ Posts (Forbes)

Facebook Engineer Publicly Resigns Over Zuckerberg’s Handling Of Trump Posts (Forbes)