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Facebook told its employees on Tuesday that it has made some internal online discussion groups private to minimize leaks.
Many Facebook employees participate in online discussion groups on Workplace, an internal message board that employees use to communicate and collaborate with each other. In Tuesday’s announcement, the company said some groups are focusing on platform security and protecting elections, an area commonly known as “integrity,” and that it’s private rather than public within the company, limiting who can see and participate in discussion threads.
Movement after the announcement Frances Haugen, a former employee sent thousands of pages of internal documents to regulators, lawmakers, and the news media. The documents showed that Facebook was aware of some of the harm it caused. Ms. Haugen, a former member of Facebook’s civil misinformation team, filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Testified before the Senate subcommittee this month.
“As everyone probably knows, we have seen an increase in the number of Integrity-related leaks in recent months,” wrote an engineering director in the announcement reviewed by The New York Times. “These leaks do not represent the nuances and complexities associated with our work and are often taken out of context, leading to an external mischaracterization of our work.”
Facebook was known for an open culture that fostered discussion and transparency, but was further isolated as it faced leaks about: poison talk and incorrect information and grappled with employee unrest. In July, communication team closed comments by writing “OUR ONLY REQUEST: PLEASE DO NOT LEAK” on an internal forum used for company-wide announcements.
“Leaks make it difficult for our teams to work together, can put sensitive employees at risk from the outside, and lead to the misrepresentation and misunderstanding of complex issues,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement. Mr Stone also said Facebook had been planning the changes for months.
Tuesday’s announcement said Facebook plans to scan some online discussion groups to remove people whose work isn’t related to security and safety. Changes will take place “in the coming months” and “with the expectation that in the future sensitive Integrity discussions will take place in closed, curated forums.”
In internal comments shared with The Times, some employees supported the move, while others denounced the loss of transparency and cooperation. They called the change “inefficient” and “discouraging”, and one person suggested it could lead to more leaks from disgruntled employees.
“I think every employee at the company should think and work on integrity as part of their daily duties, and we should work to foster a culture where that is the expectation,” one Facebook employee wrote. “Removing people who are committed to integrity will both undermine active collaboration efforts and reduce the cultural expectation that honesty is everyone’s responsibility.”
Mike Isaac contributing reporting.
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