Facebook fires employee protesting inaction on Trump posts

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook has fired an employee who criticised Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s decision not to take action against inflammatory posts by President Donald Trump.

Brandon Dail, a user interface engineer in Seattle, wrote on Twitter that he was dismissed for publicly reprimanding a colleague who refused to include a statement of support for the Black Lives Matter movement on developer documents he was publishing.

Dail sent the tweet a day after joining dozens of employees, including six other engineers on his team who abandoned their seats in protest after objecting to the handling of Trump’s posts.

“Intentionally not making a statement is already political,” Dail wrote in the tweet on June 2. He said yesterday on Friday that he stood by his comments.

Facebook confirmed Dail dismissal but did not give further details. The company said that employees participating in the walkout would not face retaliation.

Trump’s posts prompted the staff outcry including the racially charged phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” regarding demonstrations against racism and police brutality held after the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.

Twitter affixed a warning label to the same post saying it glorified violence but Facebook opted to leave the post untouched.

Zuckerberg defended his decision at a tense meeting with employees that week. During the meeting, Dail tweeted that it was “crystal clear today that leadership refuses to stand with us.”

Dail voiced objections this week after both Facebook and Twitter declined to take action against a Trump post that contained an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory about Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old protester who was critically injured by police in Buffalo, New York.

Internal dissent is often encouraged at Silicon Valley tech giants but many companies have been accused of penalising workers who organise and air complaints publicly.

Google fired at least five workplace activists late last year, while Amazon dismissed critics of its warehouse conditions during the coronavirus pandemic.