Facebook Employees Tweet, Stage Walkout Against CEO Mark Zuckerberg

For the first time in the history of Facebook, the employees of the social media giant staged a walkout as a form of protest against the founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for not taking a stand against incendiary comments made by President Donald Trump on the platform last week.

Many of the employees took to social media to express their dissent against Mark Zuckerberg.

“I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we’re showing up. The majority of coworkers I’ve spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard,” Jason Toff, a director of product management, tweeted on Monday.

“The hateful rhetoric advocating violence against Black demonstrators by the U.S. president does not warrant defence under the guise of free expression,” one company official posted on their Facebook profile. The person, a former Republican senior staffer who was among those who took off work, declined to be named out of concern about public recrimination.

“I don't know what to do, but I know doing nothing is not acceptable,” Jason Stirman, a design manager at Facebook, said. “I'm a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark's decision to do nothing about Trump's recent posts, which clearly incite violence. I'm not alone inside of FB. There isn't a neutral position on racism.”

Another Facebook design employee, Ryan Freitas, suggested on Twitter that the company had more than two options when deciding to leave up or take down a post. There are dozens of actions, he wrote. "We know because we designed them."

“Facebook's inaction in taking down Trump's post inciting violence makes me ashamed to work here,” Lauren Tan, a software engineer at Facebook, said on Twitter. “I absolutely disagree with it.”

A spokesperson for Facebook gave the statement "We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now, especially our Black community,” Liz Bourgeois, said in a statement. “We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree with leadership.”