Dozens at Facebook unite to challenge its ‘intolerant’ liberal culture
"The post went up quietly on Facebook's internal message board last week. Titled "We Have a Problem With Political Diversity," it quickly took off inside the social network. "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." 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." https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/28/facebook-employees-challenge-intolerant-liberal-ulture-.html
Now that this guy is “out” he’d better prepare for the deluge. The media will eat this controversy up big time.
I don't think they'll fire the guy right away. His coworkers and senior colleagues will perhaps isolate him until someone in that group says or does something stupid to discredit any argument they might make, and *then* they'll get the boot.
So what he wants is for people to hit the like button on his views and not the frownie face. Poor baby. He should defend his views and not seek preferential treatment from big bad internet bullies.
The story doesn't exactly say what their demands are, or if any have been made. I'm not sure they're in much of a position to be making demands anyway. They're just self-organizing to make a statement.
Which is dumb? At least have a charter of demands before you go whining about injustices at not being able to worship faux news at work
They want diversity. This isn’t rocket science. Hasn’t “diversity” been the mantra of the left for years? But, won’t be surprised if this guy gets Damore’d by the “tolerant” left at FB.
Grabs popcorn 🍿
My one big question is, why is Congress making *any* inquiries about perceived biases of a private corporation? Each company has a culture, and cultures are inherently value-laden....which bias them towards some values and away from others. How is it Congress's job to dictate culture?
With many companies I would agree with you. Facebook's platform specifically gives them an incredible amount of influence over national discourse though. It is the digital town square. They are lucky this engineer has started this conversation inside the company. They and other social media sites are speeding towards being regulated if they cannot find ways to be more impartial. The government has not stepped in yet but will be inclined to without more tolerance for non hard leftist views and transparency into what is grounds for silencing. Their first step to handling this internally is have more political diversity of thought in house For more on the discussion https://youtu.be/nVVbjlv4j6Y
You could argue that the influence over society that social media companies have is a national security issue. The rise of extremism and division in this country over the past decade is in my opinion a direct result of companies like Facebook and Twitter
Ironic that the liberal facebookers ruined the election for the liberal candidate.
I see it this way: the Russians exposed a vuln in American culture. Our inability to think through issues rationally and assuming good faith. We're persuaded more by outrage and slogans... makes us temperamentally susceptible to psychological manipulation. Mistrust will destroy us long before Russian interference will. They're just exploiting an obvious weakness.
Totally agreed.
Ideology and thought are not a class we need to protect. You’re welcome to you thinking and welcome to express it, but in our business we (the organization) have a stance on certain issues and have the right to ask you to shut it. We ask people to change the way they think at work all the time, offer training about critical thinking, inclusivity and company methodologies all the time. You don’t adopt them, you get moved out. I’m not saying we should ask your political opinions in hiring selection or performance evaluation, but if you share them, be prepared to have people hold you accountable when they find your political POV unacceptable and be prepared to defend your stance with cogent arguments. Same goes for Dems and liberals working at conservative organizations (e.g. Chick-Fil-A, Hobby Lobby or Koch Industries). As an FYI, you can always quit and find another organization better aligned to your thinking, start your own company or do political advocacy outside of the office (may have to clear that with the legal/ethics group).
Irrelevant comparison to your so-called conservative orgs. FB is all about (only about) ideas and postings on the internet (not about how many chicken sandwiches you want). In the arena of posting thoughts and ideas, etc. - and as the dominant player, diversity of thought should be allowed by FB. And no, I don’t believe the government should be involved in this.
But don't even social media companies get to decide to adopt a set of "community standards" and decide what they are?
How long until he is fired
Time to start an office pool.
As a libertarian, liberals get confused because I support doing drugs and changing your gender, but then get angry because I hate socialism and taxes
Because as soon as they realize that you call yourself a libertarian they realize you're an idiot.
"The aim of the initiative, according to Mr. Amerige's memo, is to create a space for ideological diversity within the company." So in essence they want a space for themselves where they can feel safe from different opinions...? Hmmmmm kind of sounds like a... safe...space
Or, I take it, a "safety in numbers" approach. I assume they're perhaps one among many peer groups that organize themselves similarly.
What a cancerous way to think. Having political diversity doesn't mean they have a safe space. It means that not everyone has a far left liberal sjw position but a spectrum of which they all can equally voice opinions.