Williams explained in his note that “prayers for … any place where there’s a war going on may be removed, but prayers for those affected by a natural disaster, for example, can continue.” He added, “We know people may not agree with this approach, but it’s one of the compromises we’ve made to make sure we keep a productive space.” Everyone,
Pain and distress
Meanwhile, Arab and Muslim activists expressed disappointment that a commemoration of World Refugee Week inside Meta last month featured discussions about human rights projects and the experiences of refugees and a lunch based on Ukrainian and Syrian food, but no mention of Palestinians. (WIRED has seen the internal program for the week.)
He was similarly disappointed Meta’s Oversight Board, which advises on content policies, written in Hebrew, but not in ArabicPalestinian Human Rights to seek public comments about the expression “from the river to the sea,” including whether it is anti-Semitic. A spokesperson for the Oversight Board did not respond to a request for comment.
Employees are also frustrated that Meta has not met their demands since December, which included removing Instagram accounts of anti-hate watchdog groups. Canary Mission And Prevent anti-Semitism who are shaming Palestinian supporters for alleged violations Forum Rules Against Bullying. PWG leaders met with Meta executives, including global affairs president Nick Clegg, who vowed to continue dialogue with workers. But the accounts are still up, and Canary Mission and StopAntisemitism have added about 15,000 followers since the demands were formulated.
Taking it as a sign of the uphill battle ahead of them, employees reflected on this recently. one photo The Instagram post shows Nicola Mendelsohn, the head of Meta’s global business group, posing with Leora Raz, the founder and executive director of StopAntisemitism. Raz told WIRED that her group does not hesitate to call out individuals with anti-Semitic views and alert their employers, but declined to comment further. Canary Mission said in an unsigned statement that anti-Semitism “requires accountability.”
The controversies have had a broad impact on Meta’s response to Gaza discussions. In May, Meta’s internal community team shut down some planned Memorial Day commemorations to honor military veterans at the company. An employee asked for clarification on an internal forum with more than 11,000 members, in response to which Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, wrote that the planning and monitoring of all types of activities was needed, in part because of polarizing discussions about “unrecognized regions or territories.”
Bosworth wrote in a post seen by Wired that honoring veterans was “non-political” but that the CEE rules must be enforced consistently to remain within labor laws. “There are groups that are zealously looking for excuses to undermine our company policies,” he wrote.
Some Arab and Muslim employees felt Bosworth’s comments were directed at them. “I don’t want to work in a place that actively discriminates against my community,” says one Meta employee who is almost ready to quit. “Working at this company makes me feel bad.”
Meta has shown no let-up in CEE enforcement in recent weeks. Employees have been prevented from holding vigils internally. As a result, they plan to gather near the company’s New York and San Francisco offices this evening to honor co-workers who lost family in Gaza in the war, according to the Meta4Employees Instagram account and two sources. They are eager to see how the company handles efforts to prevent the memorial, which the public is invited to attend.
Ashraf Zeitoun, who was Facebook’s head of Middle East and North Africa policy from 2014 to 2017 and is still an adviser to many Arab employees at Meta, says discontent among those workers has grown. They used to force longtime employees to quit when they were frustrated; now they have to convince recent hires to stay longer to give the company a chance to grow.
Zeitoun says the “unprecedented levels of restrictions and enforcement” have been “extremely painful and upsetting” for him. It seems the feelings Meta wanted to avoid by keeping discussion of the war out of the workplace cannot be so easily suppressed.
