(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Employees of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, are reportedly rebelling against CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to get rid of its politically biased fact-checker and make other content moderation modifications.
According to the tech publication 404 Media, one of Zuckerberg’s changes is to allow Facebook users to say that “LGBTQ+ people have mental illness.” That change apparently didn’t sit well with Meta’s queer employees.
404 Media interviewed five anonymous Meta employees who said they’re “furious” with the changes.
“It’s total chaos internally at Meta right now,” one current employee told 404 Media.
😵💫 pic.twitter.com/8rYn8VePHS
— AlphaFo𝕏 (@Alphafox78) January 10, 2025
“The entire thread of comments shared is dissent toward the new policy, save for one leader repeating Zuckerberg talking points. I’d call the mood shock and disbelief. It’s embarrassment and shame that feels self-inflicted, different than mistakes the company has made in the past,” the employee reportedly added.
“No one is excited or happy about these changes. And obviously the employees who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community are especially unhappy and feel the most unsupported in this,” another employee told 404 Media. “A small number of people are taking time off and are sharing that they are considering leaving the company due to this change.”
The dissent is spilling out in internal Meta chatgroups. One employee reportedly wrote that they needed time off because they’re gay—and therefore mentally ill.
“I am LGBT and Mentally Ill,” the employee posted on an internal Meta platform called Workplace this week, according to 404 Media. “Just to let you know that I’ll be taking time out to look after my mental health.”
Meta didn’t respond to 404 Media’s questions about the matter.
In doing away with its fact-checking regime, Meta said this week that the program was “well-intentioned at the outset,” according to Meta Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, but “too much political bias” infiltrated the scrapped system.
Fox News host asks Meta executive point blank if Facebook, Instagram were “doing something wrong” censoring free speech.
“…Well-intentioned at the outset, but there’s just been too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check.” pic.twitter.com/nd6WqoNJyY
— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) January 7, 2025
“If you can say it on TV, you can say it on the floor of Congress, you certainly ought to be able to say it on Facebook and Instagram,” the Meta executive added.
Meta’s departure from censorship came after a two-year Facebook and Instagram ban was imposed on Trump following the 2020 election.
The company lifted Trump’s ban ahead of the Republican Party convention in 2023, stating, “we don’t want to get in the way of open, public and democratic debate on Meta’s platforms—especially in the context of elections in democratic societies like the United States.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
