On June 15th of this year I published a statement expressing our views on the climate of racism and systemic injustice that have plagued the United States for far too long. To recap, we believe black lives matter. Period.
We also believe that children shouldn’t be separated from their parents when crossing the border into our country while attempting to seek asylum. And they shouldn’t be placed in cages.
These are just two examples that illustrate why I do not support Donald Trump or his administration. And why I believe that any institution that is actively working to aid him by cheating the system and interfering with the mechanics of our democracy should not be trusted, much less supported financially.
And this is precisely what Facebook has chosen to do. Zuckerberg has worked to advantage the far right, and thus the president. He has consistently taken the low road when it comes to content moderation and the spread of misinformation, choosing to look the other way when Trump is the offending party. And he has done this to curry favor and promote his platform while getting our so-called president to take actions against a competitor.
Enough is enough.
We are shutting down our Facebook and Instagram accounts and no longer using these platforms for our business needs. Sure, it will hurt our recruiting and outreach. But that seems like a small price to pay considering what black people deal with every day. Or what those kids separated from their parents must have experienced. We cannot support a company whose actions are so incongruent to our own core values, namely to "manifest trust" and "care for others."
What does that mean?
We will be shifting our focus to LinkedIn while continuing to explore Twitter. No platform or company (or human being) is perfect, so all of this will be reviewed frequently. We are not telling anyone else what to do or how to feel about Facebook. All of us have to make these decisions for ourselves.
But as the CEO, I get to make this decision for our company. And this was not a difficult decision.
Shervin
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
