It’s unclear whether moving the teams to Texas would be more than just symbolic. Common sense suggests that if someone in California shows some kind of political preference, moving them to Texas is unlikely to instantly reshape their views.
In the same phone call with the City Council, company leadership described the Texas relocation as an attempt to address California’s perception problem. This reasoning has frustrated employees, who believe Meta is harming its workforce in order to appease Trump, the three employees told WIRED. Meta and Trump Stay in litigation in a Northern California federal court regarding the temporary suspension of his account following the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol. Trump claims his constitutional right to expression has been violated. Zuckerberg recently met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to mediate the lawsuit, according to The Guardian. Wall Street Journal.
This week, Meta Exposed plans To cut 5 percent of its workforce starting next month. The company said it plans to refill those positions throughout the year, a move that could lead to more employees being hired in Texas. Following last week’s decision by Meta to close its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Program, there will be no hiring targets for historically underrepresented groups.
Changes made last week to the hateful conduct rules allow users to post more vitriol, including around gender and race. During Rogan’s podcast, Zuckerberg said users will now be able to advocate on issues such as whether they should serve in military combat roles. Some employees have warned that Meta is now supporting the spread of misogyny and intolerance on its services, according to two employees.
In a town hall call with employees, one executive defended the policy changes by saying they would open the door to many viewpoints, such as the ability to call out lazy men on Facebook without fear of being censored, according to one employee present.
On the enforcement side, Meta is scaling back its current fact-checking program, limiting the use of automated filters to suppress allegedly offensive posts, and promoting greater political content in its newsfeeds.
On Tuesday, 12 civil rights groups said they had advised Meta for years He wrote to the company To express “grave concern” about the revised policies. “These changes are devastating to free expression because they will expose members of protected groups to more attacks, harassment, and harm, driving them off meta services, impoverishing conversations, eliminating viewpoints, and silencing dissenting and often censored voices,” he wrote. The group includes the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Black Justice Caucus.
In the Security and Integrity Council, the administration will not commit to continuing to publish statistics on the sexual and racial composition of the company’s employees. “It’s surrender in the worst way,” says one of them.
Individually, some managers have told their teams that they plan to keep pushing for diverse hiring, according to three employees.
Additional reporting by Steven Levy.