Facebook Employee Who Wrote Memo on Company’s “Intolerant” Liberal Monoculture is Quitting
The Facebook engineer who famously wrote a memo decrying the company's liberal "political monoculture" that is "intolerant" of conservatism has announced he will be quitting his job.
Brian Amerige, the man behind the memo and an internal Facebook message board called “FB’ers for Political Diversity,” wrote to his fellow employees on Wednesday:
"These problems can be solved — just not by me, not any more, at least. I care too deeply about our role in supporting free expression and intellectual diversity to even whole-heartedly attempt the product stuff anymore, and that's how I know it's time to go."According to Business Insider, Amerige is set to start a company with his friend at the intersection of applied philosophy (epistemology, specifically) and technology.
In August, Amerige - a self-described objectivist - wrote a memo titled "We Have a Problem with Political Diversity" which described Facebook as a company with a "political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views."
The memo also claimed that "employees are afraid to say anything when they disagree with what’s around them politically."
The memo led to the creation of “FB’ers for Political Diversity,” a group of conservative employees who were protesting the largely liberal culture at Facebook.
In the lengthy message of his departure, Ameriage said his last day with the company will be Friday.
"I've been thinking about this for almost a year, and though a certain leak delayed me a bit, I know it's time for me to move on," he wrote. "I'm not leaving because 'it's time for something new.'"
Amerige would continue:
"I'm leaving because I'm burnt out on Facebook, our strategy, our culture, and our product. Strategically, we've taken a stance on how to balance offensive and hateful speech with free expression. We've accepted the inevitability of government regulation. And we've refused to defend ourselves in the press. Our policy strategy is pragmatism — not clear, implementable long-term principles — and our PR strategy is appeasement — not morally earned pride and self-defense."
"While I remain as in love as ever with our mission and my colleague's nearly-always good intentions, I disagree too strongly with where we're heading on these issues to watch what happens next. These issues hang over my head each morning, and I don't want to spend all of my time fighting about them."
Here are some highlights from the memo about Facebook's internal culture written by Amerige:
- We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views. We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack—often in mobs—anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology. We throw labels that end in *obe and *ist at each other, attacking each other’s character rather than their ideas.
- We do this so consistently that employees are afraid to say anything when they disagree with what’s around them politically
- These are not fears without cause. Because we tear down posters welcoming Trump supporters.
- We have made “All Lives Matter” a fireable offense.
- 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.
- We’re quick to suggest firing people who turn out to be misunderstood, and even quicker to conclude our colleagues are bigots.
- We are blind to and dismissive of what people beyond our walls (let alone even within our walls) think about complex issues that matter. I’ve been here for nearly 6.5 years and this has gotten exponentially worse in the last 2.
