Meta has issued a harsh reality check to its employees.
Business Insider shared insights from a leaked all-hands recording, revealing the company’s vision for the future. Among the key takeaways was an ambitious plan for a “highly intelligent and personalized” digital assistant, which is anticipated to reach 1 billion users.
“I think whoever gets there first is going to have a long-term, durable advantage towards building one of the most important products in history,” Zuckerberg explained in the recording.
He also addressed the company’s decision to steer clear from third-party fact-checkers in place of the community notes system and changes in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Meta is among the major companies that have retracted its policies, adhering to conservative agendas. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Meta dismantled its programs tied to DEI and stopped the initiative that required it to consider hiring diverse candidates in every open position.
“The way to think about this is we’re in the middle of a pretty rapidly changing policy and regulatory landscape that increasingly views any policy that might advantage any one group of people over another as something that is unlawful, and because of that, we need to adjust, or else we’ll just be out of alignment with what the law is saying,” Zuckerberg mentioned. “Historically, we’ve had a handful of specific programs that were very focused on certain underrepresented groups, and I think the direction of the policy and regulatory and legal direction on a lot of the stuff is that you can’t do things that advantage-specific groups, even if you’re trying to make up for other things.”
The Verge shared findings from Zuckerberg’s recording, which prompted Meta’s Chief Technology Officer, Andrew Bosworth, to send a note in its internal workplace forum within a group with 12,000 members called “Let’s Fix Meta.”
In response to the outlet’s article, Bosworth commented, “As predicted, the entirety of today’s Q&A leaked. It sounds like someone just gave the entire audio feed to a journalist. I saw all the angry/sad reactions about the change to the format, and I share a sense of loss about it, but I think this makes it clear it was the right call.”
Not everyone shared Bosworth’s sentiments. One employee responded: “1. The company changes policies to specifically target the LGBTQ community; 2. it cuts its own data-backed DEI programs; 3. leadership goes on a far-right podcast to explain changes instead of addressing employees; 4. it limits free speech internally… and there’s surprise?”
Bosworth informed the employee that if they believe “everyone has to like all the policies we have, and if they don’t, it is appropriate to leak,” then “I think you should consider working elsewhere.”
More back-and-forths occurred, with the employee saying separately, “Blaming leaks for why Mark’s policy decisions cannot even be discussed, much less appealed, is a slap in the face. We’re all here because when we were hired, we were the best candidates for the job.”
Bosworth’s stance did not waver, even despite the employer flagging poor treatment in the workplace. They were once again informed to quit or maintain their positioning and respect its changes.
“You should quit if you feel that way, I mean it,” Bosworth said. “Unless you are referring to the policy changes, in which case Mark spent quite a while talking through them, it just sounds like you don’t agree. In that case you can leave or disagree and commit.”
Meta has not commented on this matter (at the time of this writing).
