Facebook personnel aren’t usually ones to take a political stand, but it seems like that may change. This is because Facebook employees are asking Mark Zuckerberg what they can do as a company to stop a Donald Trump presidency.
Gizmodo obtained a screenshot of a March 4 internal employee poll about what they would want to ask Zuckerberg during an upcoming Q&A. The screenshot shows that the fifth most popular question is “what responsibility does Facebook have to help prevent President Trump in 2017?”
It’s an important question because Facebook is used by over 1.04 billion people, and the organization could actually tinker with its algorithm to suppress Trump content and be protected by the first amendment. Gizmodo explains the dilemma:
“I’m inclined to say Facebook has the same responsibility of any legacy media company,” said Robert Drechsel, a professor of journalism ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He thinks Facebook should provide coverage that is thorough, fair, accurate, complete, and contextual. “There is no legal issue.”
So, removing Trump content would be legal, but not ethical. This is especially relevant since Facebook has been accused of tinkering with their algorithm/news feed in the past to see how they could impact their users’ voting behavior in 2010, as well as their emotions in 2012.
(via Gizmodo)