Black Lives Matter is arguably the most prominent contemporary social activist movement in the U.S. Having organized over a thousand protests since 2014, its campaigns against violence toward black people have granted it widespread media coverage. As is often the case, the movement’s high profile has irked certain members of society — politicians (from both the left and the right) in particular have been chastised for their careless comments on Black Lives Matter protests.
It seems we can now also add a number of Facebook employees to the list of individuals troubled by the movement’s message. The company’s “signature wall” (where employees actually write messages traditionally on a huge whiteboard) has become the site of a contentious showdown between its workers. After the Black Lives Matter slogan began appearing on the wall in Facebook’s Menlo Park HQ, it was reportedly scratched out and replaced with “all lives matter.”
The issue was brought to light by none other than Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who had to revert to “boss mode” and scold those responsible for making the alteration.
In an internal memo posted on the Facebook announcement page for employees, Zuckerberg describes how the issue had been brought up in a company Q&A. “I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior … but after my communication I now consider this malicious as well,” he states in the post, which can be seen below via a screenshot obtained by Gizmodo.
Zuckerberg goes on to state: “There are specific issues affecting the black community in the United States, coming from a history of oppression and racism. ‘Black lives matter’ doesn’t mean other lives don’t – it’s simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve.”
Zuckerberg adds that the incidents are being investigated, meaning there may be repercussions for the Facebook employees responsible for “silencing speech.”
