The Business Inside: Facebook To Review Policies After The Backlash

The ongoing protests across the globe to fight against racism has taken a huge turn of the events. Not only America, but people are gathering together to raise their voices against the unjust treatment happening with black people. The death of African Black-American George Floyd raised the sleeping spirits of many people, including celebs and various renowned brands like EA Sports, Activision, DC, Marvels, etc.. 

Recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave his statement on Friday in which he stated that he will consider changing the Facebook policy that led the company to un-touch controversial posts of America’s President Donald Trump. The posts came during the death of unarmed George Floyd when he was in police custody.

Although Zuckerberg did not specify what type of policy changes he would be making, days after when staff members started resigning from the job, it is clear that Facebook will take some actions. On Trump’s message that contains the phrase “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Zuckerberg wrote, “I know many of you think we should have labeled the President’s posts in some way last week,” referring to the decision to not to take down the post.

Further, he wrote, “We’re going to review our policies allowing discussion and threats of state use of force to see if there are any amendments we should adopt. We’re going to review potential options for handling violating or partially-violating content aside from the binary take-it-down or leave-it-up decisions.”

During the staff meeting held earlier this week, employees raised their concerns regarding Zuckerberg’s stance on Donald Trump’s post. Also, more than 140 scientists that were funded by Zuckerberg himself, criticized Facebook to not take any action over Trump’s posts. After witnessing so much backlash over social media and in the Facebook office, Zuckerberg assured that they will be more transparent about their decision-making process regarding taking down posts, reviewing posts policies that cause voter suppression. They will build better software to address racial justice, led by important lieutenants.

We all know Zuckerberg holds a controlling stake in Facebook. Earlier, he stated that although Trump’s comments are deeply offensive, they did not violate Facebook policy against persuasion to violence. The policy is to either leave a post or take it down. But now, he assured that they will consider other possibilities too.

However, he further explained that there’s a risk of editorializing content when someone doesn’t like it even if it doesn’t violate Facebook policies.