Williams explained in his note that “Prayers for…anywhere there is a war going on could be removed, but prayers for those affected by a natural disaster, for example, could remain.” He continued, “We know people may disagree with this approach, but it is one of the trade-offs we made to ensure we maintain a productive place for all.”
Pain and anguish
Meanwhile, Arab and Muslim workers expressed disappointment that last month’s World Refugee Week commemorations in Meta included talks about human rights projects and refugee experiences and lunches with Ukrainian and Syrian food, but no mention of Palestinians. (WIRED has seen the internal program for the week.)
they were equally dismayed that the Meta Oversight Board, which advises on content policies, He wrote in Hebrew, but not in Arabicto request public comment on Palestinian human rights speech “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.
Workers also remain frustrated that Meta has not met their December demands to remove the Instagram accounts of anti-hate watchdog groups such as Canary Islands Mission and Stop antisemitism who have been shaming Palestinian supporters in an alleged violation of platform rules against harassment. PWG leaders met with Meta executives, including Nick Clegg, the president of global affairs, who promised to keep the dialogue open with workers. But the accounts remain open, with Canary Mission and StopAntisemitism each gaining around 15,000 followers since the demands were drawn up.
Taking it as a sign of the uphill battle they face, employees recently took advantage a photographer On Instagram, Nicola Mendelsohn, director of Meta’s Global Business Group, poses alongside Liora Rez, founder and executive director of StopAntisemitism. Rez tells WIRED that her group doesn’t hesitate to call people out for their antisemitic views and alert their employers, but declined to comment further. Canary Mission says in an unsigned statement that “there needs to be accountability” for antisemitism.
Disputes over Meta’s response to discussions about Gaza have had cascading effects. In May, Meta’s internal community team canceled some planned Memorial Day commemorations to honor the company’s military veterans. One employee asked for an explanation on an internal forum with more than 11,000 members, prompting a response from Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, who wrote that polarizing discussions about “regions or territories that are not recognized” had in part necessitated revisiting planning and oversight of all types of activities.
While honoring veterans was “apolitical,” Bosworth wrote in the post seen by WIRED, the EEC rules had to be applied consistently to survive under labor laws. “There are groups that zealously seek an excuse to undermine our company policies,” he wrote.
Some Arab and Muslim workers felt they were affected by Bosworth’s comments. “I don’t want to work anywhere where my community is actively discriminated against,” said one Meta worker who is about to leave. “It makes me sick to work for this company.”
Meta has not let up on its enforcement of the CEE law in recent weeks. Workers are still unable to hold internal vigils. As a result, they were planning to gather near the company’s offices in New York and San Francisco this afternoon to recognize colleagues who have lost family members in Gaza to the war, according to the Meta4employees Instagram account and two of the sources. They are curious to see how the company intends, if at all, to stop the memorial, which the public is invited to attend.
Ashraf Zeitoon, who was Facebook’s head of policy for the Middle East and North Africa from 2014 to 2017 and still mentors many Arab employees at Meta, says discontent among those workers has soared. He used to pressure long-time employees to quit when they became frustrated; now he has to convince new hires to stay long enough to give the company a chance to evolve.
“Unprecedented levels” of restrictions and enforcement have been “extremely painful and distressing for them,” Zeitoon says. It seems the emotions Meta had wanted to avoid by keeping discussions of the war out of the workplace cannot be so easily suppressed.