Facebook announced its first-ever vice president for civil rights on Monday. Facebook made its promise in July last year that it would be hiring a civil rights leader.
Facebook's first civil rights leader has worked with Obama Administration
Roy L. Austin Jr. is a civil rights lawyer for 25 years and previously worked with the Obama administration. His title is vice president for Facebook civil rights and deputy general counsel. On January 19, Austin will officially start and will be destined for Washington DC.
According to Business Insider, in a press release, the social media giant said Austin would build the company's new civil rights organization, described as "an incredibly important role for Facebook and for the tech industry."
Meanwhile, Roy L. Austin said that he is excited to join Facebook when there are national and global awakening incidents around civil rights. He added that technology has a significant role in everyone's life and is crucial in overcoming historical discrimination and hate that many underrepresented groups experienced, rather than exacerbating it.
From 2014 to 2017, Austin worked as part of the Obama administration in the Office of Justice, Opportunity, and Urban Affairs, as per Facebook's press release. The company faced several employee outrages on how it managed civil rights issues in the past year.
Read also: 48 US States Sue Facebook for Alleged Abuse of Market Power
Facebook bans 'stop the steal' posts
Aside from announcing its first-time ever vice president for civil rights, Facebook announced that it would ban all content that includes the "stop the steal" phrase that leads to the presidential inauguration. Earlier, HNGN reported that the social media giant issued a statement saying it removed content containing the words used by President Donald Trump's supporters doubting the 2020 presidential election.
In a blog post, Facebook says it would increase enforcement against the phrase used by protesters who participated in a siege at the U.S. capitol.
Facebook warns employees not to wear company gear in public
According to a new report from the tech news site, the Information, Facebook warned its employees not to wear any Facebook-branded gear in public. The company warns its workers after it banned Trump from the platform.
The memo said, "In light of recent events, and to err on the side of caution, global security is encouraging everyone to avoid wearing or carrying Facebook-branded items at this time." However, it does not mention Trump by name, as per Gizmodo via MSN.
Pro-Trump rallies were planned across 50 state capitols, ABC News reported. The FBI issued a warning regarding the violence to allow state governments to be prepared. Allegedly, the three "protests" planned around Washington, D.C, include a scheme to encircle the White House and "protect" Trump. On Monday, Democrats in the House were warned, including a plot to kill politicians, as per HuffPost.
