Zuckerberg to staff: stop crossing out 'Black Lives Matter'
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly issued a memo to all employees to stop crossing out 'Black Lives Matter' and replacing it with 'All Lives Matter' on the walls at the company's Menlo Park, California, headquarters.
According to Gizmodo.com, on Thursday, Zuckerberg wrote:
"There have been several recent instances of people crossing out "black lives matter" and writing "all lives matter" on the walls at MPK. Despite my clear communication at Q&A last week that this was unacceptable, and messages from several other leaders from across the company, this has happened again. I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior before, but after my communication I now consider this malicious as well."
Facebook, whose staff is reportedly 2% black, is investigating, according to the tech website.
The walls Zuckerberg is referring to are used for employees to write comments much like they would on their own walls on the social media site.
Black Lives Matter is a movement that campaigns against violence toward black people and organizes protests around the deaths of black people in killings by law enforcement officers, and broader issues of racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States.
"There are specific issues affecting the black community in the United States, coming from a history of oppression and racism. 'Black lives matter' doesn't mean other lives don't-- it's simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve," wrote Zuckerberg.
While Facebook has not publicly responded for comment about the memo, Zuckerberg was in Berlin on Friday conceding that Facebook didn't do enough until recently to police hate speech on the social media site in Germany, but said that it has made progress and has heard the message "loud and clear."
"Hate speech has no place on Facebook and in our community," he said. "Until recently in Germany I don't think we were doing a good enough job, and I think we will continue needing to do a better and better job."
With the Associated Press