After Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg allowed US President Donald Trump's posts to remain on the social media platform, intense criticism from outside and inside the company followed. Now, the critics are also coming from his own funded organization, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).
'Facebook's directly antithetical': Here's what CZI has to say against Mark Zuckerberg
The Verge reported this week that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a funded organization by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan-Zuckerberg, recently sent a letter to Facebook regarding the issue on President Trump.
A group of 143 scientists from the top 60 leading universities in the world, including Harvard, Stanford, and University of California San Francisco (UCSF), wrote the letter reaching out to Zuckerberg about his 'directly antithetical' move allowing Trump's controversial posts to remain on social media.
"We were disconcerted to see that Facebook has not followed their own policies in regards to President Trump," the letter stated. "For example, his statement 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' is a clear statement of inciting violence."
CZI is one of the biggest non-profit organizations of the Zuckerbergs that started five years ago. It was reported that 99% of Facebook shares from the CEO are directly donated to CZI.
Its main objective is to "pursue its mission by funding non-profit organizations, making private investments and participating in policy debates, in each case with the goal of generating a positive impact in areas of great need."
CZI also said in its letter that the organization's mission is not aligned with their founder's actions since their goal is to "use technology to help solve some of our toughest challenges from preventing and eradicating disease to improving learning experiences for kids, to reforming the criminal justice system" and "to build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone." This, they said, is not in line with POTUS's posts about George Floyd's death and the resulting Black Lives Matter protests.
Facebook employees stage an online rally against the CEO
Members of CZI weren't the only vocal dissenters to Zuckerberg. Employees of Facebook were first to criticize their CEO's acceptance of Trump's posts that "glorify violence." Some of them called for Zuckerberg's resignation as a sign of protest against his inaction on the platform.
"Along with Black employees in the company, and all persons with a moral conscience, I am calling for Mark to immediately take down the President's post advocating violence, murder, and imminent threat against Black people," said one employee whose name The Times agreed to withhold.
"The lack of backbone, and this weak leadership, will be judged by history. Hate speech should never be compared to free speech," one employee said. "The president (sic) is literally threatening for the National Guard to shoot citizens. Maybe when we're in the middle of a race war, the policy will change."
Zuckerberg has yet to issue a comment on CZI's statement.
