Nearly three dozen former employees from Facebook's early days have blasted Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to act against incendiary posts by US President Donald Trump.
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In an open letter initially reported by the New York Times, the former staff say the decision is "cowardly" and a "betrayal" of company ideals.
Facebook's leadership team, defended their decision at a tense all-hands meeting the day before, following an employee walkout over the issue.
Criticism of Zuckerberg's hands-off approach to speech by political leaders reached a crescendo last week, after rival social network Twitter began putting warning labels on several Trump tweets that the platform said contained misleading information and glorified violence.
Snapchat likewise took a hard line, booting Trump's account on Wednesday from a curated "discover" section of its app which promotes fresh content. It said it would not amplify voices inciting "racist violence."
The former employees, including a staffer who opened Facebook's office in Washington, implored Zuckerberg to implement checks on speech by political leaders as it does for other users, including fact-checks and labels on harmful posts.
"The company we joined valued giving individuals a voice as loud as their government's -- protecting the powerless rather than the powerful," they wrote.
Facebook's current approach, they said, "is not a noble stand for freedom. It is incoherent, and worse, it is cowardly."
Australian Associated Press