[ad_1]
Earlier last month, a Facebook software engineer, Ashok Chandwaney, resigned and published a public letter criticizing the company for failing to address hate.
“Facebook is choosing to be on the wrong side of history,” Chandwaney warned in the letter, which was posted on the company’s internal message board. “I can no longer bear to contribute to an organization that is profiting from hate in the United States and around the world.”
The resignation, first reported by the Washington Post, was the latest act of rebellion within a company that used to be one of the most sought-after places to work in Silicon Valley, but faces growing internal dissent from its elite workforce.
It comes at a time when outside critics are also concentrating resources on a more organized critique of Facebook and demands for change.
Last week saw the launch of Facebook’s Royal Oversight Board (RFOB), an independent body of experts that includes some of America’s most prominent civil rights activists, academics, and lawyers.
Facebook dismissed the board as “longtime critics creating a new channel for existing critics.” But he was concerned enough about his training to pressure the main funder, the Luminate philanthropic group, to abandon the project.
And just before RFOB’s launch, the social media giant finally announced that its own internal oversight board would start work in October, though it will likely not handle election-related cases, despite concerns about volatility around the US presidential elections.
Plans for that meeting were first announced in late 2018 – glacially slow progress for a company that prides itself on “moving fast.”
Chandwaney, who is gender non-binary and uses the pronouns “they” and “they,” accepted only their second interview about Facebook’s explosive resignation to highlight the impact they believe the RFOB has already had.
They believe that both internal dissent and external pressure will be needed to bring about change within a company that from its own personal experience is “not interested” in eradicating hatred and incitement to violence on its platforms. “
“It’s going to take everyone,” Chandwaney said by phone from California, diverting attention from his lonely position against one of Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies.
“Suddenly. After the Royal Oversight Board [forms]Is Facebook’s own oversight board ready too? I would be very suspicious of it being a coincidence. I think that shows the power of the Real Facebook Oversight Board, without them having authority over Facebook. And I’m excited to see what else they can move the company forward. “
Chandwaney’s high-profile resignation was just the latest internal attack on Facebook’s values and way of doing business in a year of fierce confrontations between staff and management.
There have been strikes, periodic leaks of sensitive internal documentation, and painful clashes in staff meetings with President and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“I was looking at the situation and thinking that I just don’t want to work here anymore,” they said. “That said, I think there are a lot of people with a conscience who work at Facebook who are pushing the company to be better. We see this in all the people who show up at Mark Zuckerberg’s internal discussions and Q&A sessions with incisive questions about electoral integrity, civil rights and the mistreatment of certain Facebook workers … We see that in the increase in employees speaking anonymously with reporters or sharing alarming bits of internal content with them. “
They became disillusioned with Facebook after seeing that a company whose slogans included “be brave”, “act fast” and “create social value” did not apply those values to the fight against hate, incitement and illegal discrimination on its platforms.
For years, Facebook has been accused of inadvertent links to violence in various countries and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, but the impact of its policies has also become increasingly apparent in its home country in recent months.
During a summer of civil unrest in the United States, Facebook was linked to the growth of the violent Boogaloo movement and a militia “call to arms” the night two Black Lives Matter protesters were shot and killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
It was “false” for Facebook to say it was trying to crack down on the hate, given its technical expertise and the problems that still rage on the site, Chandwaney said: “One third of the world uses Facebook right now. Frankly, I’m a little wordless trying to describe what an impressive expression of technical excellence that is, that works reliably for so many people. ”
“I’m not sure we can expect anyone to guarantee that ‘we will end hate on the Internet.’ But I think Facebook has the capacity to make great strides, ”they said, expressing their opinion that Facebook seemed to have ignored the recommendations of the experts it used for a civil rights audit and the suggestions made by outside critics and civil society. “It kind of reflects that they are not interested in making that substantial progress, they are not willing to make the substantial progress that they could.”
Although Chandwaney was just one of thousands of workers, the protest and other acts of internal dissent are likely to worry the company more than attacks from outside critics, said Varoon Bashyakarla of Tactical Tech, a Berlin-based group whose work explores how our personal data can be used for political influence purposes.
He said working for the tech giant could one day carry the same kind of moral stigma as working for tobacco companies that continued to sell cigarettes even after the link to lung cancer was revealed. “Highly sought after Facebook employees who have numerous employment options at their disposal have a massive influence on the reform of the company,” he said. “Facebook needs you.
“They are realizing that simply telling people who work at Facebook damages their reputation and calls into question their moral compass, especially as the ills of Facebook draw closer to home.”
A Facebook spokeswoman told the Washington Post after Chandwaney’s resignation: “We don’t profit from hate. We invest 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. “
