Facebook launched on Wednesday, June 10 another feature for Facebook-Workplace which is said to suppress the word "unionize" catching ire from employees.
Workplace by Facebook is an intranet-style chat and office collaboration service similar to Slack. Employees can stream content similar to a news feed while automatically generating trending topics based on people's posts.
It is used by companies to discuss projects, coordinate meetings, and share announcements, functioning as a digital workplace. However, as reported by Intercept, one of the new tools rolled out by Facebook allows administrators to delete certain trending topics that they may find objectionable.
According to Mashable, the presentation highlighted the benefits of "content control" and provided a sample topic that employers might blacklist. It included the word "unionize."
New Facebook Workplace Feature isn't really welcome in the workplace
Meanwhile, Facebook Workplace Vice President Julien Codorniou said that the tool intends to combat bullying. "An early mock screenshot of the feature used an example of a hashtag that could be removed by an admin," Codorniou said in a series of tweets adding that it was not focused on the intent, which is to prevent bullying.
1/5: Workplace’s entire mission is to give everyone a voice, this is what we’re known for and what our customers buy our product for. There has been some buzz around a mistake we made earlier this week in sharing plans to employees about a new feature, called Hashtags — Julien Codorniou (@codorniou) June 12, 2020
Codorniou also noted that administrators can only remove the hashtags from the trending list, but not the actual content or hashtag or even delete comments.
3/5: It’s worth noting that the admin tool also only lets admins remove the hashtag from the trending list, it can’t delete the content or hashtag, or amend the comments — Julien Codorniou (@codorniou) June 12, 2020
He also said "sorry for this confusion and the screenshot" and that they are correcting it as soon as possible.
5/5: rigorous review before shipping it to customers. We’re very sorry for this confusion and the screenshot. The rest of the WP leadership team and I are looking to make this right asap — Julien Codorniou (@codorniou) June 12, 2020
Among Facebook Workplace clients are major employers like Walmart, Discovery Communications, Starbucks, Campbell Soup Corporation, and the Singapore government.
Employees air dismay over Facebook Workplace blacklisting "unionize"
Facebook employees aired their dismay against the social media giant, whom they accuse of building tools that suppress labor organizing.
Is this company intent on doing something evil every week? I remember when Bill Gates was viewed as calculative and ruthlessly evil. Mark seems intent on actually surpassing that. — Kaiyul (@Capt_Smirk) June 12, 2020
Another Twitter user noted Facebook's decision not to regulate "hate and political disinformation" while it "can erase any mentions of unions."
Facebook: We can't ban hate and political disinformation
Also Facebook: Look how seamlessly we can erase any mentions of unions https://t.co/nj2weUZm8l — Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) June 12, 2020
Following the backlash, Facebook removed the presentation on Thursday, June 11. Facebook Workplace product manager Karandeep Anand apologized for the "unionize" example as it was just a simple judgment error.
Anand also noted that "censoring users is not the purpose of this feature and Workplace's ambition is to give everyone a voice, while maintaining a respectful work environment."
"While these kinds of content moderation tools are useful for companies, this example should never have been used and we apologize for it," the Facebook spokesperson told Mashable in an email. He also stated they have already dropped plans to roll the feature, which is still in its early development.
The Facebook Workplace incident further shows the deeply divided Facebook work environment where employees, engineers, and designers have begun doubting company leadership and their decisions.
The Menlo Park, California-based company has been receiving criticism for selectively regulating the posts on the platform/ Earlier this month, Facebook employees staged a virtual "walkout" against the company's decision not to flag a post of President Donald Trump that seemed to endorse violence against widespread protests. The employees believed the post violated Facebook policies against incitement of violence.
Critics also noted Facebook's failure to combat misinformation, particularly with its decision not to fact-check or regulate paid political advertisements.
