A senior Facebook engineer has revealed a massive anti-leftist bias within the tech company staff, saying those who do not share left-leaning political beliefs, or even outright express their right-wing views, are being targeted by colleagues, ostracized and even fired.
Brian Amerige, a senior Facebook employee, issued a memo, obtained by The New York Times, saying his colleagues "attack — often in mobs" people that do not share leftist views. Manifestations of this bias include tearing down Trump posters and file complaints to HR department on anyone who criticized Islam.
The memo sparked a new group called "FB'ers for Political Diversity," which has already attracted hundreds of members, the Daily Mail reports.
"We claim to welcome all perspectives," Amerige wrote, "but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology."
"I've personally gotten over a hundred messages to that effect," he added.
Mark Zuckerberg, the company's chief executive officer, has named Thiel as an example of company's supposed political diversity, which has not stopped the staff from targeting Thiel, Amerige writes, according to the Times.
Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, a virtual reality firm acquired by Facebook, was not as lucky as Thiel. After his secretly donating funds to a pro-Trump organization named Nimble America, which spread anti-Hillary Clinton memes during the 2016 US presidential election, became known to his colleagues, he was pressured into leaving the job, the Times reported.
"While the problem isn't unique to us, we are entrusted by a great part of the world to be impartial and transparent carriers of people's stories, ideas, and commentary," Amerige wrote in the memo. "Congress doesn't think we can do this. The president doesn't think we can do this. And like them or not, we deserve that criticism."
The memo surfaced as US President Donald Trump continues to accuse internet companies of undue bias in favor of left-leaning views, a claim the companies have repeatedly denied. On Tuesday, Trump accused Google of rigging search results so that the engine only shows negative results about Trump. Later in the day, the president extended his attacks to Twitter and Facebook.
"We have thousands and thousands of complaints coming in. And you just can't do that," Trump tweeted.
