(Photo: REUTERS/Tom Brenner TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Facebook workers are so disappointed with their boss for not doing anything over US President Donald Trump's posts pertaining to mass protests in light of the murder of an unarmed black man, George Floyd.
As a result, the social media giant's employees staged a virtual walkout to protest against the company, The New York Times disclosed, as per story by Karissa Bell of Engadget.
The company's personnel, a large number of whom are still doing telecommuting work due to the ongoing pandemic, have taken a day off and indicated they're not working for the day as a show of protest to their CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the report divulged. The staff are also working on a "list of demands" for management.
Facebook managers have been notified by the its human resources department not to retaliate against employees who are planning to participate in the virtual walkout, or to make them use paid time-off, sources told CNN, as first reported by NY Times.
The show of dismay comes amid an unprecedented sequence of defiance on Twitter by Facebook workers. Jason Stirman, Facebook's design manager, said he does not agree with Zuckerberg 's decision to do "nothing" about the President's latest Facebook remarks.
In a Sunday tweet, Stirman said he's not alone inside of Facebook, and that there is no impartial viewpoint on racism. Sara Zhang, Facebook product designer, tweeted that Facebook's decision to not act on remarks that incite violence "ignores other options to keep our community safe," AP reported, as cited in a Local 12 news story.
Last week, in the midst of escalating violence in Minneapolis over the killing Floyd, Trump took to both Facebook and Twitter, and posted: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts," Megan Rose Dickey and Taylor Hatmaker of TechCrunch, wrote.
Based on a report by The Washington Post, there is a racially charged history behind the President's remarks. In the 60's, a white police chief uttered those same words during a civil unrest in Miami's black neighborhoods. Trump, however, said he had no knowledge of that.
Twitter's response was to apply a notice to Trump's use of those phrases, disclosing it went against the company's policies about venerating violence.
Facebook declined to take any action on the same remarks, with Zuckerberg disclosing Friday that while he found the post very offensive, they did not infringe on the company's policy against violent persuasions and people should be aware if the government was planning to use military force.
