Facebook announces curbs on internal debate of political issues

- Facebook Inc on Thursday said it would update its internal discussion policies to impose restrictions on employees ability to debate social and political issues.

A company spokesman said Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg outlined his plans for the curbs to employees on Thursday, with details of the new rules to be announced next week.

Osborne said the new rules would apply to employee discussions of how executives handle politically sensitive content on Facebooks platforms, which was the subject of intense internal debates this summer.

He said Facebook aimed to ensure that debate of those decisions could still take place in appropriate channels, without clogging up other work-related discussions.

The company was also strengthening its harassment policy to keep conversation respectful and protect underrepresented employees, he said.

Like other tech companies, Facebook prides itself on fostering open debate inside the company, while taking a hard line against public disclosure of those conversations.

Conversation flows freely on Workplace, an internal social network that resembles Facebooks namesake platform, and Zuckerberg opens himself to employee questions at a weekly Q&A.

Original article
Author: Katie Paul

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