Facebook profiting off hate, says software engineer in sign off note to company

Ashok Chandwaney, a software engineer with the social media giant Facebook has resigned from the company over hate content

Ashoke wrote a detailed 1,300-word document, bristling with links to bolster his claims and scathing in its conclusions, reported Bloomberg.

"I'm quitting because I can no longer stomach contributing to an organization that is profiting off hate in the US and globally," he wrote in a letter posted on Facebook's internal employee network.

"We don't benefit from hate. We invest billions of dollars each year to keep our community safe and are in deep partnership with outside experts to review and update our policies. This summer we launched an industry leading policy to go after QAnon, grew our fact-checking program, and removed millions of posts tied to hate organizations - over 96% of which we found before anyone reported them to us,” said, Facebook spokeswoman Liz Bourgeois said.

The company has done too little to combat the rise on the platform of racism, disinformation and incitements to violence, Chandwaney wrote.

According to a report in Bloomberg, he specifically cited the company's role in fueling genocide in Myanmar and, more recently, violence in Kenosha, Wis. Facebook failed to remove a militia group's event encouraging people to bring guns to protests ahead of fatal shootings last month despite hundreds of complaints, in what Zuckerberg called an "operational mistake."

The letter written by Ashok also cited Facebook's refusal to remove President Donald Trump's post from May saying "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" and dismissed the company's response to civil rights issues as mere public-relations maneuvers.

Chandwaney was hoping that Facebook would take all of the recommendations from its civil rights audit in July, which concluded that the company's policy actions "were a tremendous setback," and also said that it would be more responsive to the demands of the advertising boycott organized under the hashtag #StopHateForProfit.

In an interview to Washington Post, Ashok said, "There have been so many comments that have been PR fluff rather than substantive.” "Allowing lies in election ads is pretty damaging, especially in the current political moment we're in,“ he said.

According to the report in Bloomberg, Chandwaney is of South Asian descent and is based in the Seattle area. He cited the work of civil rights group Color of Change, a frequent critic of Facebook, in the resignation letter. "It is clear to me that despite the best efforts of many of us who work here, and outside advocates like Color Of Change, Facebook is choosing to be on the wrong side of history.”

The mood within Facebook soured nearly four years ago as it became clear that Facebook played a key role in the 2016 election of President Trump, by amplifying false news reports and Russian disinformation while allowing his campaign to deliver targeted messages to swing voters. Unrest has only grown since then among the company's more than 52,000 employees.