Facebook Took Down Former Employee's Post About Discrimination At The Company

Parvati Divakar - Dec 07, 2018

Facebook temporarily blocked users' access to a post from a former executive who says the social media giant “has a black people problem.”

Recently, a former Facebook employee named Mark Luckie dropped a memo to all Facebook employees with the main content as follows “Facebook has a black people problem.” Mark Luckie worked as a strategic partner manager for influencers at Facebook. And after sending the memo, he also left his job.

The letter sharing his experience of prejudice and racism when he works as one of the few black staff at Facebook. Luckie said:

The ex-manager also added that there have been many stories about black workers who were "accosted by campus security" more than necessary.

From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to the accusation of genocide against Myanmar military. A series of scandals led people to raise questions about the honesty of this social networking giant. And with this scandal, Facebook has come under severe criticism for its "black people problem."

However, the post was temporarily removed and flagged as violating Facebook's Community Standards. The post was unavailable to other Facebook users.

In a post published on Luckie’s Twitter, he tweeted:

To provide an explanation for this issue, Anthony Harrison, Facebook’s spokesperson officials said:

He also added that they are reviewing the matter.

However, the company didn't seem to take down the post on purpose. It looks like the post was removed due to Facebook's excess moderation. This has also created debate and discussion related to the frequency of Facebook's content censorship, especially for sensitive issues.

This problem was also mentioned in Luckie's memo. According to him, black people are trying to create "safe spaces" for their own conversation. However, they realize that the platform is derailing all their efforts. All of their the positive contents are labeled as "hate speech" by the "non-black people." Even when their contents don't infringe Facebook's terms of service, it can be taken down, and accounts can also be suspended indefinitely.

In conclusion, the exact cause of this problem has not been determined. However, what happened to Luckie, unfortunately, coincides with all the Facebook-related issues that black people undergo that he tried to highlight.