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
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
Imran Khan
Irfan Ahmed, PM, FTW
James Gomis, Data Analyst, NYC
Jesse Gray, Content Writer, Los Angeles
Jibraan Qureshi, RL Dogfooding Team, Burlingame
Jules Merkle, Environment Concept Artist, Poznan
Kareem Moulana, EE, Redmond
Kash Todi, Research Scientist, Redmond
Kristine Holst, UXR, San Francisco
Laith Hasanian, Software Engineer, Menlo Park
Lindsey Basnet
Mac Abdi, Product Operations Manager, Brooklyn
Majd Algharably, Operations Manager
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
Sheed Moses, Test Analyst, Burlingame
Sneha Palle, Software Engineer, New York
Sofiane Abbar, Software Engineer, London
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
AJ, SWE, NYC
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
MA, Research Scientist
MH
Mohanad
NN
Ola, SWE, Palestinian
Omar
Palestinian Employee
PM Director, San Francisco, CA
SA,SWE,MPK
Sarah
Shareen
SS, Data Analyst, NYC
SW, Analyst, New York
tahina
Zarif Altool
رائدة منصور - P
**Verified ex-Meta**
Abhishek Patel, ex-Meta, New York
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
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
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
Lubna ksseibi content review analyst Sunnyvale
marissa beech, ex-meta, los angeles
Mehroos Ahmad
Mohamed El-Dirany, Software Engineer, New York
Mohamed Kamal, ex-Meta, London
Mohamed Moussa, ex-Meta
Nessrin, former RMI, Tripoli
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
Utkarsh Singh
Vithushan Namasivayasivam, Ex-Meta, Toronto
Watson Ren
Ziad Sadek