Original online here and here.
Dear Mark Zuckerberg and Leadership,
This letter is a follow-up to the letter that was circulated internally on Dec 19, 2023 and deleted and dismissed due to our Community Engagement Expectations (CEE) on what can be discussed internally. Hence, we are sharing our concerns externally in a new letter:
We, Meta employees, wish to express our disappointment and astonishment at the lack of acknowledgement and care the leaders of this company have shown toward the Palestinian community and its allies. In private conversations, we hear from our Palestinian colleagues about family members they have lost in Gaza and family they are working tirelessly to find safety for. However, any open support for our Palestinian colleagues or the millions facing a humanitarian crisis in Palestine is met with internal censorship of employee concerns, biased leadership statements showing one-sided support, and external censorship that is raising public alarm and distrust of our platforms.
Internally, we have called out the months of silencing within our workplace forums. While we loudly display “Your voice is valued”, CEE is used as a guise to delete dissenting opinions and silence employees that may simply be seeking solace from their coworkers or raising awareness about building safer products. While in other companies, employees within Employee Resource Groups (ERG) are allowed to connect and speak freely with each other, ERG’s such as Muslims@ and Palestinians@ have faced so much censorship that an employee proposed just deleting the ERG altogether instead of giving the illusion that we can freely build community at Meta. CEE claims to reduce disruptions in our workplace, yet censorship from CEE has caused many of us at Meta to feel disrupted, unheard, and unsafe to the point that several of our Metamates have decided to resign. In the words of our former colleague, any mention of Palestine is taken down –
Even when the post was from a colleague expressing their grief.
Even when the post was to celebrate the UN International day of support to the Palestinian people.
Even when the post is a link to a fundraiser to help the Gazans.
Even when asking questions about product bugs that affect Palestinian voices.
One of the original core values of Facebook was to “Be Open” and our current values claim that “We create a culture where we are straightforward and willing to have hard conversations with each other.” Employees have always been first responders to surface issues raised externally to those internally with the power and knowledge to fix them. However when over 450 colleagues came together to sign a letter similar to this one in December, CEE was used to delete the letter and restrict one of the writers from their work devices for over two months while the workplace, product, and policy concerns brought forth were completely ignored. Employees have attempted to raise product concerns related to the conflict only to have their posts and comments censored or dismissed throughout internal channels. Most recently, questions about investigative reports indicating the possibility of governments, ISPs, and coordinated bad actors using Whatsapp data for military targeting have been met with dismissive and insufficient responses or outright deleted throughout internal forums.
Meta leaders have posted numerous strong statements of support for our Israeli colleagues along with condemnation of the attack on Israel on October 7th that took the lives of ~1,200 civilians, both on internal and external platforms. Mark stated on his public Facebook –
“The terrorist attacks by Hamas are pure evil. There is never any justification for carrying out acts of terrorism against innocent people. The widespread suffering that has resulted is devastating. My focus remains on the safety of our employees and their families in Israel and the region.”
However, bias and inequity is painfully apparent when those same leaders do not similarly share support for our Palestinian colleagues and allies nor condemnation of the attacks on Palestine, which have now taken ~35,000 civilian lives and created a humanitarian crisis of displacement and starvation for ~2 million Palestinians. This has created a hostile and unsafe work environment for hundreds of our Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, anti-Zionist Jew, and anti-genocide colleagues at the company, who have felt consistently alienated and uncomfortable at work. Many have tried to articulate this through posts on Workplace only to be censored, rebuffed, and/or penalized. Feedback shared directly with leadership on Workplace Chat has been met with dismissiveness. Bias and inequity for the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is also apparent when compared to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which there was an outpouring of leadership support on all fronts, including additional resourcing and investment through various social impact initiatives. The lights in the Dublin office were even painted with the colors of the Ukraine flag. Leadership must do better to achieve true equity and inclusion.
Externally, when it comes to Palestine, the dismissive tone and lack of investment by Meta is not new and the company has consistently failed to thoroughly take action on years of evidence of suppression of Palestinian voices on our platforms worldwide. In 2024 the company is still slowly addressing the findings of an independent audit influenced by Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) 2021 letter to Meta on the Palestinian conflict 3 years ago. In the wake of October 7th, Meta has ignored reasonable requests for transparency on our content policies from Senator Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers around the globe. Numerous civil rights organizations, some of whom are Meta partners, have been met with dismissal on the censorship concerns brought forth – leading to external petitions such as one against Meta’s proposed policy of treating “Zionist” as a proxy for “Jewish”, which collected over 52,000 signatures.
While Meta denies any Palestinian censorship or bias to the public, internally groups of employee volunteers have found numerous product and policy issues with disparate impacts to Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab communities since October 7th. The few improvements that have been made were achieved only by appealing to isolated product teams, with minimal senior leadership support or resources. Furthermore, in the wake of global criticism of censorship and moderation, leading into the biggest year for democracy in history, Meta has updated its policy to no longer recommend ‘political content’ by default across Instagram and Threads without clear guidelines of how this would impact content originating from global conflict zones. Meta has continued to fail the Palestinian community through its policies and lack of investment.
“Meta.Metamate.Me.” We believe we are all Meta and are committed to respectfully working together to address the issues internally and externally, while holding firmly to the demands we have been echoing for months:
- We demand an end to censorship – stop deleting employee’s words internally in order to foster an inclusive environment where all communities feel seen, heard, and safe
- We demand acknowledgment – share internal acknowledgments of support for Palestinian colleagues and acknowledge the lives lost in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza to recognize our shared humanity
- We demand transparency and accountability – allocate dedicated resources to investigate issues of censorship and biases on our platforms and openly disclose findings to build trust among employees and the public
- We implore you to end the silence – issue a public statement urging for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza
As tech workers, we have a tremendous privilege to work on products that serve the world, and with that comes tremendous responsibility. We have been proud to work at Meta – and want to continue believing in its mission to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.
Please sign the letter here.
The letter will be updated with signatories periodically, listed in alphabetical order:
**Verified Meta (full name signature)**
- Abdelhamead Ibrahiim
- Abdullah Hashmi, Software Engineer, San Francisco
- Abdullah Shamari, Accounting Manager, Orange County
- Ahmad Baracat, Senior Software Engineer, London
- Ahmad Jarara, Software Engineer, NYC
- Ahmed Touati, Paris, AI research scientist
- Ahnaf Siddiqui, Software Engineer, Tampa
- Aishat Aloba, UXR, San Francisco
- Alex Martkovsky, Data Analyst, Los Angeles
- Alexander Mercier, CSM, Los Angeles
- Ali Bharwani, Software Engineer, San Francsico
- Alifia Hussain
- Alveera Khan, MLE, Menlo Park
- Amjad Bashiti, SWE, Jerusalem
- Amr Elshennawy, Software Engineer, Bellevue
- Ann Chunharakchote, Data Analyst, NY
- Argynbyek Shyegyebai, Software Engineer, Seattle
- Asad Liaqat, Research Scientist, MPK
- Aster McFarlane, Contingent Worker, Lisbon
- Ayman Mahfouz
- Bellal Labanieh, Marketing Science, Placentia
- Betsir Zemen, People Research Scientist, NYC
- Bilal Sheikh, Software Engineer, Redmond
- Bob Peck, Senior Account Manager, Austin
- Bruna Afonso
- Cam Owen, UX Researcher, New York
- Daire Ni Chathain, Production Engineer, Berlin
- Dave Kukfa, Security Engineer, San Francisco
- Ehsan Arbabi
- Evelyn Eastmond, PDP, Wrentham
- Fany Sepehri, Data Scientist, San Diego
- Fatema Abdolhadi, Software Engineer, Washington dc
- Fatima Bouhamdan, SWE, Boston
- Genesis Faumuina, Seattle
- Hajar Zaki
- Haleema Mehmood
- Hamoud Agha, Dublin
- Harriet Webb, Contingent Worker, Austin
- Heather Sundar, Project Manager, New York City
- Henry Letts, Program Manager, Amsterdam
- Hura Mohabbat
- Hussain Humadi
- Imran Khan
- Irfan Ahmed, PM, FTW
- James Gomis, Data Analyst, NYC
- Jawwad Ahmad, Software Engineer, Dallas
- Jesse Gray, Content Writer, Los Angeles
- Jibraan Qureshi, RL Dogfooding Team, Burlingame
- Jules Merkle, Environment Concept Artist, Poznan
- Junaid Tayyab
- Kareem Moulana, EE, Redmond
- Kash Todi, Research Scientist, Redmond
- Khadija Afroze, Ops PM, Bay Area
- Kristine Holst, UXR, San Francisco
- Laith Hasanian, Software Engineer, Menlo Park
- Lindsey Basnet
- Mac Abdi, Product Operations Manager, Brooklyn
- Majd Algharably, Operations Manager
- Mariam Naguib, Events – RL Dogfooding, Burlingame CA
- Mazen Oweiss, SWE, Austin
- Meghna Islam, Software Engineer, San Francisco
- Michelle Johnson, UXR, Brooklyn
- Mike Qasem
- Mohamed Ezz, Software Engineer
- Mohamed Merzouk, PM, New York
- Mohammed Feras Majeed, P2P Governance Analyst, Remote
- Najm Sheikh, Software Engineer, New York
- Nasreen Serhal, Events Coordinator, Dallas
- Noman Paya, VR TPM, Sunnyvale
- Nosaiba Ozturk, Software Engineer, London.
- Osama Abdelrahman
- Osama Badr, Test Analyst, Burlingame
- Rabia Lari, Saratoga, Ca
- Ramzi Saud, Data Analyst
- Robert Dei Dolori, RL Dogfooding Team, NY
- Saima Akhter, Data analyst, New York
- Shaheena Arshad-Trijillo, Network Capacity Engineer, Fremont, CA
- Shakti Das, Level Designer, Atlanta
- Shayna Moon, Technical Producer, San Mateo
- Sheed Moses, Test Analyst, Burlingame
- Sneha Palle, Software Engineer, New York
- Sofiane Abbar, Software Engineer, London
- Stephanie Fawaz, Producer
- Syed S Ahsan, SWE, Houston
- Tara Cubeisy
- Uzma Saeed, Communications Manager, Brooklyn
- Waleed Syed
- Waqqas Farooq
- Xiaodong Ma, IC, Dublin
- Yasmeen Syed, Seattle
- Youssef Emad, SWE, Burlingame
- Yousuf Azhar, QA Engineering Lead, Tracy
- Zain Ul Abedin**Verified Meta (anonymous signature)**
- A human caring for all human lives
- A Meta employee who desires fair treatment
- A tired employee
- Afnan Mussa
- AJ, SWE, NYC
- anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous, Burlingame
- Anonymous, Software Engineer, San Francisco
- Anonymous, SWE Sourcing, Fremont CA
- AR Interactions Scientist, Burlingame
- AS, Product Designer, San Francisco
- Bint il Ard
- C Y, Software Engineer, Seattle
- Ceasefire Now, User Experience Researcher
- CO, New York
- Embarrassed to be associated with Meta
- Essam A, SWE, MPK
- Fatima H, PC, Fremont
- Hanny Z
- I.H
- Irina
- Kelly Jun, Tech Planner, Pittsburgh
- MA, Research Scientist
- MH
- Mohanad
- Moustafa
- N Hassan
- N, Research Scientist, New York
- Nigel Randall, Studio Designer 4, Los Angeles, CA
- NN
- Ola, SWE, Palestinian
- Omar
- Palestinian Employee
- PM Director, San Francisco, CA
- Rahama
- SA,SWE,MPK
- Sarah
- Shareen
- SS, Data Analyst, NYC
- SW, Analyst, New York
- Syed, SWE
- tahina
- Zarif Altool
- رائدة منصور – P**Verified ex-Meta**
- Abhishek Patel, ex-Meta, New York
- Ahmed
- Ahmed Medhat, ex-Meta, Palo Alto
- Ahmed Ragab
- Ahmed, ex-Meta, Dublin
- Amal Lozi, Ex-Meta SWE, Raleigh, NC
- Amro Younes, Redwood City
- Amy Steigerwald, ex-Meta, Austin
- Anh Ly, ex-Meta, Philadelphia
- Anon, ex-meta, nyc
- anonymous
- Anonymous
- Asma Elj, Ex-Meta, Dublin
- Avery Berchek, ex-Meta, Portland, OR
- Ben McCready, ex-Meta, Columbia
- Clay Smalley, ex-Meta, Raleigh
- CN
- Cornelia Reitinget
- Dan
- Deblina, ex-Meta, Brooklyn, NY
- ex-Meta employee
- Gerri Paul
- Gina Girgis, Research Assistant III, Redmond
- Giovanni Toso, Investigation Analyst, Dublin
- Habeeb Ahmed, Ex-Meta, Waterloo
- Hamdan Azhar, ex-Facebook, New York
- Hussein Negm, Data Engineer, Dublin
- Imani Mufti
- Islam Hassan, ex-Meta, London
- James C, ex-Meta, NY
- Joseph Rodríguez
- Joyce Zhao, ex-Meta Software Engineer, New York
- Kavindya Thennakoon, Learning Experience Designer (Ex-Meta)
- Krystle Young
- Lindsey
- Lubna ksseibi content review analyst Sunnyvale
- marissa beech, ex-meta, los angeles
- Mehroos Ahmad
- Michelle Lin, ex-Meta, Burlingame
- Mohamed El-Dirany, Software Engineer, New York
- Mohamed Kamal, ex-Meta, London
- Mohamed Moussa, ex-Meta
- Mohammad Abdulmoneim, ex-Meta Intern, London
- Nadah Feteih
- Nessrin, former RMI, Tripoli
- Nivedita V
- NS, ex-meta, menlo park
- Omar Abdelkader, ex-Meta, Menlo Park
- Omar Khair, ex-Meta Intern, Alexandria, Egypt.
- R.M.
- Rachelle Edwards
- Rawan Mohamed, Recruiting Coordinator, Garner
- Rebecca Kumar, ex-Facebook, Los Angeles
- Ron, ex-Meta, Washington State
- Rowena Ruan, ex-Meta, San Francisco
- Sam Saliba, Oakland
- Sara Arguilla, ex-Meta, San Jose
- Sofia
- Tamer Nassar
- Utkarsh Singh
- Vithushan Namasivayasivam, Ex-Meta, Toronto
- Watson Ren
- Ziad Sadek
