Facebook Employees Protesting Against Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook employees are staging a rare protest against the company for leaving up a post from President Donald Trump they say could incite violence. The employees, who began publicly criticizing the social network on Twitter over the weekend, have escalated their disapproval by staging a virtual walkout and symbolically changing their workplace profile pictures. 

The social media giant has faced criticism before from its employees about the company's mostly hands-off approach to political content. The internal disapproval, however, has reached a new boiling point because Facebook's inaction contrasts with rival Twitter's response to Trump's posts.

After labeling two of Trump's tweets about mail-in ballots for "potentially misleading information," Twitter placed another notice over the president's tweet for violating its rules against glorifying violence. In the tweet, which was also posted by the White House's account, Trump said "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." The president made the remarks in response to news about protests that have erupted following the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minnesota who died after a white police officer pinned his neck down with his knee.

Facebook left up Trump's post after the company determined that the president's remarks didn't violate its rules against potentially causing "imminent risk of specific harms or dangers," a decision that conflicts with Twitter's interpretation of the remarks. Facebook allows for discussion around the state use of force. The world's largest social network also doesn't have a notice like Twitter that allows a politician's post to stay up even if it violates its rules. 

The decision prompted hundreds of Facebook employees to stage a "virtual walkout"...