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A number of Facebook employees on Monday planned a virtual walkout after executives said they would not take action concerning future posts from President Donald Trump even after some were labeled as misleading and dangerous by Twitter.
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00:00A number of Facebook employees on Monday planned a virtual walkout after executives said they
00:04would not take action concerning future posts from President Donald Trump, even after some
00:09of his posts were labeled as misleading and dangerous by Twitter. Facebook's chief executive
00:13Mark Zuckerberg has held firm through the years that he believes his company's platform should
00:17be hands-off when it comes to political posts, and he has seemingly not budged. The Facebook
00:21pushback comes after Twitter last month began to fact-check some tweets from Trump and flagged
00:25another for dangerous rhetoric. That move created intense rage from Trump, who blasted the company
00:30for censorship. A number of Facebook employees used Twitter to express they were upset Trump's
00:35posts were not addressed. Among them, Ryan Freitas, director of product design at Facebook, wrote,
00:40Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind. I apologize if
00:45you were waiting for me to have some sort of external opinion. I focused on organizing 50-plus
00:49like-minded folks into something that looks like internal change. And Jason Toff, a director of
00:54product management at Facebook, tweeted, I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we're showing
00:58up. The majority of co-workers I've spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard.
01:03According to a New York Times report, the number who participated in the virtual walkouts is in the
01:07dozens. Some have been using their out-of-office replies as a statement of disappointment over the
01:11company's position. Some staff members have also circulated petitions and threatened to resign
01:16over the inaction. A Facebook spokeswoman told the Times Monday morning, top executives welcomed
01:20feedback from employees, saying, We recognize the pain many of our people are feeling right now,
01:25especially our Black community. We encourage employees to speak openly when they disagree
01:29with leadership. A request for additional comment from The Hollywood Reporter was not returned.
01:33For more on this story, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.
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