A Facebook engineer left the social media giant on Tuesday, publicly criticizing the company for not doing enough to combat hate speech.
"I'm quitting because I can no longer bear to contribute to an organization that benefits from hatred in the US and around the world," said Ashok Chandwaney in a post shared publicly on Facebook and internally with colleagues. The resignation underscores the backlash Facebook is facing from its own employees, while civil rights activists and advertisers are under pressure to address hate speech more aggressively.
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In the post, Chandwaney outlines several content moderation decisions that raise concerns about whether the company is taking this issue seriously.
In May, Facebook left a post from President Donald Trump These included making "When the looting begins, the shooting begins" because the company found it had not broken its rules on inciting violence. On the other hand, Twitter referred to Trump's tweet with the same comment that he had broken his rules against the glorification of violence. Facebook's decision to leave Trump's post resulted in some employees holding a rare virtual protest while others left the company. Facebook hasn't removed a either Kenosha Guard Militia Event calling for violence before a fatal shootout during a racial justice protest in Wisconsin. After the shooting, the company tore open a page for the militia group for violating its rules and said it had not acted earlier because of an "operational error".
"The actions taken are simple and can be interpreted as effective because they make us look good, not as effective because they make substantial changes," wrote Chandwaney.
Facebook spokeswoman Liz Bourgeois said the company "doesn't benefit from hatred". "We invest billions of dollars each year protecting our community and we work closely with outside experts to review and update our policies. This summer we rolled out an industry-leading policy for QAnon, our fact-checking program expanded and removed millions of posts tied to hate organizations - we found over 96% of them before anyone reported us, "she said. QAnon is a right-wing conspiracy theory according to which there is a so-called "deep state" trial against Trump and his supporters.
Chandwaney, who is gender neutral and uses "she" and "she" as pronouns, said in the post that the company's approach to hatred has undermined their belief that Facebook will remove this offensive content from its platform. Chandwaney didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but the 28-year-old criticized some of Facebook's other policies in an interview with the Washington Post. The social network does not send posts from politicians to third-party fact checkers, even if they contain misinformation. "Allowing lies to be seen in canvassing is pretty damaging, especially in the current political moment that we are in," Chandwaney said in an interview.
In July, more than 1,000 companies, including big brands like The North Face and Ben & Jerry's, vowed to stop buying ads on Facebook until the company takes more action against hate speech on its platform. The Stop Hate for Profit campaign outlines 10 steps Facebook should take to better address hate speech on its platform, including hiring a C-suite manager with a civil rights background and notifying companies when their ads run alongside hate speech.
Rashad Robinson, president of the civil rights group Color of Change, praised Chandwaney's decision to leave the company.
"Facebook has had ample opportunity to address hatred and misinformation. Instead of protecting color communities, they have chosen to get used to those in power," he tweeted.
Facebook has had ample opportunity to address hatred and misinformation. Instead of protecting color communities, they decided to get used to those in power. Makes Ashok and everyone @Facebook Employees brave against failed leadership. https://t.co/HMKvhCsIZ0
- Rashad Robinson (@rashadrobinson) September 8, 2020
