Facebook will apply content moderation to employee community forums as well
Facebook on Thursday said it really is updating workplace policy to prevent clashes over politics, racial justice or the pandemic on its internal employee message board.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg discussed the move throughout a question-and-answer session with employees.
“What we’ve heard from our employees is that they want the option to become listed on debates on social and political issues instead of see them unexpectedly within their work feed,” Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne said in response to an AFP inquiry.
“We’re updating our employee policies and work tools to make sure our culture remains respectful and inclusive.”
Facebook is strengthening its harassment policy to ensure that employees from under-represented communities don’t face hostile work environments, according to Osborne.
The Silicon Valley-based internet titan said may also make it clearer which elements of its Workplace internal forum is for discussing contentious political or social issues, and carefully moderate those conversations.
Facebook’s role in the spread of misinformation, hate, or rhetoric has made those workplace matters as well as conditions that employees may have strong personal opinions about.
The tech giant is exploring ways to promote civil, open debates focused on work, with all involved remaining professional, according to Osborne.
Details of how Facebook intends for doing that goal were still being worked out, he said.
Facebook’s move came on the heels of a CNBC report that Google is contacting staff to more judiciously manage internal forum conversations due to complaints about heated, abusive posts.
A shift to remote work at tech organizations has ramped up make use of internal message boards for worker collaboration and conversation.
This past year Google updated workplace guidelines for “Googlers,” contacting them to be responsible, helpful, and thoughtful during exchanges on internal community forums or other conversation forums.
“While sharing information and ideas with colleagues helps build community, disrupting the workday to get a raging debate over politics or the most recent news story will not,” the updated guidelines stated.
“Our primary responsibility is to accomplish the work we’ve each been hired to do, not to spend working time on debates about non-work topics.”
Managers or those moderating forums were directed to intervene if the policy is violated, revoking comments, ending discussions, or even taking disciplinary action.
The Alphabet-owned internet giant is expanding that moderation scheme to involve more internal discussion groups, according to CNBC.
