Departing Facebook Employees... Zuckerberg's Leadership Shaken

"No Change in Stance on Not Sanctioning President Trump's Posts"

Internal Employees Even Submit Resignations

Bloomberg: "Zuckerberg Faces the Most Intense Internal Backlash in Facebook's 16-Year History"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, is facing a leadership test. Despite strong opposition from internal employees and human rights activists, Zuckerberg has not withdrawn his policy of not sanctioning posts by U.S. President Donald Trump, leading some employees to submit their resignations.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 2nd (local time), two software engineers submitted their resignations the previous day. One of the reasons cited was the failure to sanction President Trump's posts.

On the same day, Zuckerberg reiterated in a video conference with employees, "I support the company's policy of not sanctioning President Trump's posts."

The video conference was originally scheduled for the 4th, but was moved up as hundreds of employees went on strike over the company's policy of not sanctioning Trump's posts, prompting Zuckerberg to provide an explanation.

Zuckerberg added, "Facebook's principles and policies support free expression," and said, "The right thing to do now is to end this controversy."

He also revealed that during a phone call with President Trump on the 29th of last month, he expressed discomfort over the posts being inflammatory and harmful. However, he repeatedly emphasized that Trump's posts did not violate Facebook's policies.

Earlier, Facebook faced internal backlash by maintaining a different policy from Twitter. This was after President Trump posted a controversial message related to the death of George Floyd, stating, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." Twitter took action to hide the post, citing that it could justify violence, whereas Facebook respected the user's "freedom of expression" and imposed no sanctions.

Bloomberg reported, "Zuckerberg is facing the most intense internal backlash in Facebook's 16-year history since its founding."