As Meta held its annual shareholder meeting online Wednesday, human rights groups coordinated online Protests calling on the company to end what they call systemic censorship of pro-Palestinian content, both on the company’s social media and within its own workforce.
The day of action comes after almost 200 Meta employees signed a letter to Mark Zuckerberg this month demanding that the company end alleged censorship of internal voices defending Palestinian rights. The employees called for more transparency around alleged bias on public platforms and issued a statement urging an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Activists say that after years of urging Meta and other platforms to exercise more fairness and transparency around content moderation, it is important to put pressure on shareholders, who can have more influence over the company than the public.
“This problem has persisted for at least a decade and we haven’t seen any real improvement; the policies are the same,” said Nadim Nashif, founder and director of the social media watchdog group 7amleh, which helped coordinate the action. “We have seen in the recent conflict that it is getting worse and we need to try other strategies, including shareholder engagement.”
Meta employees’ public statement released this month. It comes after a separate petition that circulated internally gathered more than 450 signatures in 2023. The employee behind that letter claimed that she was investigated by the company’s human resources department for violating company rules, a claim echoed in the most recent letter.
Such actions by Meta have created a “hostile and unsafe work environment” for the company’s Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and “anti-genocide” colleagues, the letter said.
“Many have attempted to express this through posts on Workplace only to be censored, rejected, and/or penalized,” the letter said. “Comments shared directly with leaders on Workplace Chat have been met with disdain.”
Employees cited the company’s failure to address external allegations of censorship, including the findings of a external audit in 2023, that led to Meta repeatedly censoring pro-Palestinian voices in response to a conflict in the region three years ago. The company has also “ignored reasonable requests for transparency” about content policies, employees allege, including a letter sent by Senator Elizabeth Warren in December 2023.
On Wednesday’s investor call, Meta completely sidestepped the issue of Palestinian censorship, touting its artificial intelligence projects and answering shareholder questions about controlling disinformation. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on circulating letters and petitions related to its moderation of Palestine-related content.