Dozens of employees of the liberal and intolerant social media giant Facebook have decided to unite to challenge the left-wing political bias deeply ingrained in the company. Although the post went up quietly on Facebook’s internal message board last week, it quickly took off inside the social network’s inner sanctum.
Titled “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity,” the post took a shot at Facebook’s intolerant views of differing political opinions. “We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views,” Brian Amerige, a senior Facebook engineer, wrote in the post, which was obtained by The New York Times. “We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.”
In fact, Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, told Congress this year that he wanted the company to “be a platform for all ideas.” Yet the company continues to punish conservative views on their platform and has even gone so far as to silence and censor others for their dissent.
Since the post went up, more than 100 Facebook employees have joined Mr. Amerige to form an online group called FB’ers for Political Diversity, according to two people who viewed the group’s page and who were not authorized to speak publicly. The aim of the initiative, according to Mr. Amerige’s memo, is to create a space for ideological diversity within the company. –The New York Times
But not everyone is happy about the post or the new group, and they are the intolerant liberals. They see the formation of a group which advocates political diversity to be insensitive to minorities. Some liberals at Facebook were so offended by the idea of diversity that they filed official complaints. One engineer (who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation) said several people were so offended by the politically tolerant group that they had lodged complaints with their managers about FB’ers for Political Diversity. They were also told that the post and the group had not broken any company rules. But other employees say the group looks like it is constructive and open to differing political opinions.
According to The New York Times, the activity is a rare sign of organized dissent within Facebook over the company’s largely liberal workplace culture. It’s not going over well with the intolerant leftists either. While the new group is just a sliver of Facebook’s workforce of more than 25,000, the company’s workers have in the past appeared less inclined than their peers at other tech companies to challenge the leadership, and most have been loyalists to its chief executive, uber lefty Mark Zuckerberg.
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, is scheduled to testify at a Senate hearing about social media manipulation in elections in a week. A team helping Sandberg prepare for the hearing next Wednesday has warned her that some Republican lawmakers will likely raise questions about Facebook and its political biases, according to two people involved in the preparations.
Click here to read Amerige’s post which was obtained by The New York Times.
Courtesy of SHTFplan.com
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