HN Explorer

Why dont Facebook engineers quit over Zucks stance on fake news and hate speech?

7 points by jlaws ↗ HN
Why don't Facebook engineers quit over Zuckerberg's stance on fake news and hate speech? Is it the money? Do they actually agree with the policies? I really want to understand the thought process of people that actually work there and unfortunately (or fortunately) no one I know works at Facebook.

9 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 37.9 ms ] thread
gregjor
Do you know how many people work at Facebook? Do you think they all share the same moral and political views? Your question seems to expect an answer that applies to all FB engineers. You could just as well ask why everyone isn't vegan.

Some people have quit. Some maybe agree. Most probably need the job. You would have to sample a representative number of FB engineers to get any kind of meaningful answer. Anecdotes and speculation aren't worth anything.

jlaws
That is the purpose of this question. Google engineers are frequently in the news for protesting company policies, which results in actual company changes, but there is never anything from Facebook. I am trying to get a broad sample of thoughts on current and former Facebook employees so I can understand if it is due to company culture, the hiring process selects for likeminded people, or if there are disagreements but no one airs their dirty laundry.
gregjor
Easy to find.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/28/technology/facebook-mark-...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/28/facebook-...

http://peninsulapress.com/2019/10/24/facebook-employee-fired...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/mark-z...

jlaws
Thanks for sharing these. It is still surprising to see only ~250 employees out of ~45,000 signing the letter about politicians to posting advertisements on the platform that include false claims. My original questions still stand for the remaining 44,500+ employees
gregjor
You’ll have to ask them. Why isn’t the entire US adult population marching in Minneapolis today? What would you learn from compiling that data?
diebeforei485
Facebook already has hate speech policies, and it's incredibly hard to define fake news.
karmakaze
Right, vote with our feet. How about we stop using Facebook? Be that person that who tells friends to do the same.

I think people have their own reasons for doing what they do that isn't so clear cut. I wouldn't want to work at FB but wouldn't rule it out exclusively for a stint. I did work in retail Forex which is like selling lottery tickets, or casino entertainment games, or sports betting. People have to do something with their time.

Nextgrid
Any engineers that had morals would've already quit long ago. In the grand scheme of things, what Facebook is currently accused of is tame compared to the stalking and privacy violations they've been doing for over a decade now.
[dead] inscartwheelies
Face it: most, if not all, social media platforms monetize and sometimes weaponize (Myanmar genocide) outrage. If they eliminated every lie, conspiracy theorist crackpot, Trump, neonazi, and KKK member, then they wouldn't have any objects of ridicule, entertainment, and/or outrage left to profit from. Concurrently, the vast majority of highly-paid engineers and other employees at social media companies are all too happy to keep collecting their paychecks and perks while consenting to making the world a worse place while making money from false, misleading, manipulative, hyper-targeted, and destructive content... they're in it only for the money, not for any noble BS like public good.