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Facebook software engineer Ashok Chandwani said the global platform has become a haven for hate and that it is time to act.
According to the US newspaper “Washington Post”, Shandwani wrote a message posted on Facebook’s internal employee network, saying: “I am resigning because I can no longer afford to contribute to an organization that profits from hate in the United States and the world.”
The 1,300-word written letter has been described as detailed, full of links to back up its claims, and scathing in its conclusions.
Shandwani, 28, of South Asian descent, based in Seattle, said: “Facebook is a nice and supportive workplace, but over time, the company’s leadership has been focused on profits, rather than to promote the social good, and the company has not done what is necessary to combat racism, misinformation and incitement. ” On violence “.
Chandwani specifically cited the company’s role in fueling the genocide in Myanmar and, more recently, the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
He justified this by saying that Facebook did not remove the event called by a militia, in which it asked people to bring weapons to the protests, despite hundreds of complaints to remove and cancel the event, which Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, described at the time as an “operational error”.
He also expressed dissatisfaction with the company’s refusal to respond to civil rights issues, and hoped Facebook would heed recommendations that concluded that the company’s policy was “a major setback,” and that Facebook was not responding to the demands to stop the hate but only cared about profits.
In the interview, Chandwani said: “Company policy allows politicians to make false claims in their ads and election campaigns, and allowing lies is very harmful, especially in the current political moment we find ourselves in.”
The letter revealed that following George Floyd’s protests, an African American employee sued the company for racism in hiring procedures.
The message said Instagram played a role in spreading misleading information, including related to anti-Semitism and white nationalism, and the company’s focus on civil rights led to a boycott of major advertisers such as Verizon and Merck.
We are investing billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe, and we are in deep partnership with outside experts to review and update our policies, ”said Facebook spokesperson Liz Bourjois.
“We are developing our program to verify information, establish facts, delete millions of posts related to hate organizations and we found more than 96% of them before someone reported them to us,” he added.
Although Facebook does not disclose how many engineers it employs, engineers are among the most sought-after employees and earn some of the highest salaries in the company.
