Meta employees criticize the company's new speech policy and board additions

dead Employees took to their internal forum on Tuesday, criticizing the company's decision Finish the third-party validation process for its services two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Company employees expressed concern after Joel Kaplan, Mita is the new Chief Global Affairs Officer The former White House Deputy Chief of Staff under former President George W. Bush announced changes to the content policy on Workplace, an internal communications tool.

“We are optimistic that these changes help us return to this fundamental commitment to free expression,” Kaplan wrote in the post reviewed by CNBC.

The content policy announcement follows a series of decisions that appear aimed at appeasing the incoming administration. On Monday, dead It added new members to its board of directorsincluding UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime friend of Trump, and the company confirmed last month that it contributed $1 million to Trump's inauguration.

Among the recent changes, Kaplan announced that Meta will eliminate its fact-checking program and switch to a user-generated system like X's Community Notes. Kaplan, who took up his new role last week, said Meta will lift restrictions on certain topics and focus its enforcement on illegal and high-risk violations while giving users a “more personalized approach to political content.”

One worker wrote that they were “deeply concerned” about the decision, saying that Meta appeared to be “sending a bigger, stronger message to people that facts no longer matter, and mixing that with the victory of free speech.”

“Just absolving ourselves of the duty of at least trying to create a safe and convenient platform is a really sad trend to follow,” another employee commented. Other comments expressed concern about the impact the policy change could have on discourse on topics such as immigration, gender identity and sexuality, which, according to one staff member, could lead to “an influx of racist and transphobic content.”

A separate employee said they were afraid “we are entering into really dangerous territory by paving the way for further spread of misinformation.”

The changes were not universally panned, with some Meta insiders congratulating the company's decision to end third-party fact-checking. One wrote that X's community feedback feature “proved to be a much better representation of the ground truth.”

Another employee commented that the company should “provide an accounting of the worst results in the early years” which necessitated establishing a third-party fact-checking program and whether new policies would prevent the same type of downfall from happening again.

As part of the company's mass layoffs in 2023, Meta also… He canceled an internal fact-checking projectCNBC reported. This project would have allowed third-party fact-checkers such as the Associated Press and Reuters, as well as credible experts, to comment on reported articles in order to verify the content.

Although Meta announced the end of the fact-checking program on Tuesday, the company had already withdrawn it. In September, An Associated Press spokesman He told CNBC that his “fact-checking agreement” with the Meta news agency expired in January 2024.

After White's addition to the board was announced on Monday, employees also posted criticism, questions and jokes on Workplace, according to posts reviewed by CNBC.

White, who has led the UFC since 2001, has become embroiled in controversy In 2023 After a video posted by TMZ showed him slapping his wife at a New Year's Eve party in Mexico. White issued a Public apologyHis wife, Anne White, issued a statement to TMZ calling it an isolated incident.

Commenters on Workplace made jokes asking whether performance reviews would now include MMA-style fights.

In addition to White, John Elkann, CEO of Italian automobile holding company Exor, has been appointed to Meta's board of directors.

Some employees questioned what value automotive and entertainment executives could bring to Metta, and whether White's addition reflects the company's values. One post noted that new board appointments will help with political alliances that may be valuable but may also change the company culture in unintended or unwanted ways.

Comments in Workplace mentioning White's personal history were flagged and removed from the discussion, according to posts from the internal app read by CNBC.

One employee, who said he was working with Meta's internal community relations team, posted a reminder to Workplace about the company's “Community Engagement Expectations”, or CEE, policy for using the platform.

“Several comments have been flagged by the community for review,” the employee posted. “It is important that we maintain a respectful work environment where people can do their best work.”

“Insulting, criticizing, or antagonizing our colleagues or board members is not consistent with CEE,” the internal community relations team member added.

Many workers responded to that memo, saying that even respectful, if critical, posts had been removed, which amounted to a form of corporate censorship.

One worker said that because critical comments were removed, the person wanted to express support for “women and all voices.”

Meta declined to comment.

— CNBC's Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report.

He watches: Meta adds Dana White, John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst to the Board of Directors.