Sophie Alpert was the manager of React at Facebook. React is a technology for building website user interfaces (UIs) in Javascript, started at Facebook. Her work was incredibly important. React is one of the most popular libraries on the web. If you’re not a web developer, you might not have heard of it, but you’ve certainly used it. It has also spun off a less popular, but still widely used, library called React Native. This is a way to build cross-platform apps for iOS and Android using Javascript.
Alpert has promised to continue contributing to React’s open source repositories, but she won’t be doing it as a manager at Facebook anymore. Instead, she has moved off to Humu, a startup with the goal of improving human resources, making companies more ethical and more diverse. It’s a great startup with a noble goal. In fact, it’s in line with the reason Sophie left Facebook.
Sophie Alpert is an out transgender woman. She’s likely no stranger to harassment for being a woman and for being transgender. Facebook has been in the news lately for nothing good. Facebook’s team allowed so much racism and hate speech on the platform that the company has become beholden to extreme right-wing conservatives, the alt-right. Now they do anything to keep from angering those sensitive users, including allowing rampant hate speech. This decision has directly correlated to increases in violent crime and even genocide in Myanmar.
Alpert called out Facebook for having too many white men on its board of directors. A more diverse group would strike a better balance between allowing hate speech and allowing free discussion. But, because of these views and her gender, she was harassed at Facebook and through anonymous company messaging app Blind. Sophie left for more diverse pastures.
In This Article:
A Company of Hate
There’s a German saying, which I’m sure I’ll botch. If you have a table with nine people and one Nazi, you have a table with ten Nazis. The idea is that, by accepting and allowing hate, you become an ally to those spreading hate. You’re an accomplice to their crimes. When Donald Trump made statements condemning all Muslims, Facebook realized right away that it violated their rules against hate speech. But, after discussing with a conservative Facebook executive, they allowed it. Since then, Facebook has become rife with similar hate speech. The site, with little moderation, has become a hotbed of harassment, hate, and even sex trafficking.
A Lack of Representation
Despite being 50% of the population, women only make up 30% of Facebook’s senior leadership.”
This is the environment that pops up from a “both sides” mentality. There’s an idea that ideas on the far left and far right are equivalent, to a person standing in the center. Usually, these views are held by, well, straight, white, cisgender men. These are the people who don’t have to worry about their rights or safety because of the people on the far right. They fall into a fallacy because of this, assuming that both ends of the spectrum are equally valid beliefs systems for political thought. That’s unequivocally incorrect though.
Victims of “Both Sides” Mentalities
These low numbers suggest bias in hiring for technical positions.
A government stands to serve the safety and rights of its people. One that does not do this is not a valid form of government. Speech is okay and free discussion of ideas is great. However, hate speech, specifically speech used to silence others, drive violence, and take the basic civil rights of others, is not rational, good, or productive. Those who are not impacted by these hateful people are often the ones making decisions about whether or not hate speech is allowed. It’s because of this “both sides” fallacy that female, people of color, and LGBTQ engineers often want more representation in upper management levels.
“In some buildings, there are more ‘Black Lives Matter’ posters than there are actual black people. Facebook can’t claim that it is connecting communities if those communities aren’t represented proportionately in its staffing.”
– Mark Luckie, Former Facebook Manager
This is what Sophie Alpert wanted for Facebook, equivalent representation. A black former Facebook manager, Mark Luckie, upon leaving Facebook, once stated that there were more Black Lives Matter posters at the company than black people. This isn’t representation.
A Culture of Discrimination
Facebook’s abysmal racial diversity at the senior level.
The U.S. Departoment of Housing and Urban Development filed a complaint against Facebook. The company was allowing advertisers on its platform to discriminate based on race, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability, and current zip code. The ACLU has also raised concerns about Facebook. They’ve filed charges over Facebook’s advertising as well. Facebook allowed companies to advertise job positions only to male candidates. These aren’t legal, but Facebook did not foresee the problem.
A company with such few women in technical roles shows bias in the hiring process.
These are the problems that stem from a lack of diversity in engineering and management. A person who has experienced sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, or transphobia could ensure that the platform cannot be used to empower bias. But Facebook is lead by men who don’t believe these are actual issues, who tend to ignore complaints. Now the company has to face numerous lawsuits. These are groups that lack the diversity required to do their jobs effectively.
Leaving Toxicity Behind
Today's my last day at Facebook.
I'm gonna miss working on React full time, but I'm excited to try something smaller and new: I'm joining @humuinc next week as an engineer.
— sophie alpert (@sophiebits) January 11, 2019
Sophie Alpert left Facebook after facing harassment for stating the obvious. Facebook’s predominantly white and male leadership do not understand online harassment and hate speech, and, as they have not experienced it, do not take it seriously enough. They have allowed it to flourish on their platform and within their company. Mark Luckie left for similar reasons.
“Sophie is very aware of how serious we took her concerns given she spent significant time with members of our human resources team who worked in earnest to address the issues on Blind. Because the comments in question were made anonymously there we weren’t able to find out who posted them.”
– Anthony Harrison, spokesperson for Facebook
Facebook’s response points out that much of Sophie’s harassment happened on Blind, an anonymous workplace chat service. However, Facebook fails to recognize that, while they can’t hold specific people on Blind accountable, they can work towards improving their culture.
At Facebook, upper management has already put the rubber stamp of their approval on hate speech. They’ve already stood behind discriminatory hiring practices that leave their technical roles and senior management overwhelmingly white and male. Facebook has already permitted this behavior, they’re not trying to stop it on their platform or internally. Therefore, it will continue. Facebook doesn’t have to figure out who these specific users are. They just need to take a firm stance against it, enact policies to make the workplace more diverse and accepting, and they’ll weed themselves out.
Facebook Chose This
Facebook is a breeding ground for hate and violence. Turns out they’re okay with that.
Facebook chose exclusion. They chose to allow hate speech on their platform and are now acting surprised that it has not only flourished on their platform worldwide, triggering hate crimes and genocide, but that it has also affected their company culture.
“Really sad to see such a talented engineer and leader leave Facebook due to harassment and bullying. How do we stop this from happening?”
– Anonymous Facebook Employee Through Blind
There’s a simple solution. All Facebook employees need to pressure their managers, and their managers’ managers, into making Facebook a more diverse company. They need to exclaim that discrimination and hate speech are not part of their culture. Facebook employees need to be the change they want to see. They need to push to make Facebook less friendly to hate both as a social network where fake news, racism, and other bigotry spread, and as a company, where they shelter such behavior.
Facebook has the ability to not only influence its own culture, but also the global culture of Facebook users. It’s no coincidence that our discussions online have become more vitriolic. Facebook allows hate speech and that gets in the way of rational discussion. It silences voices. Now, it has lost the company an incredibly talented engineer. She won’t be the last to leave.
I’m a software engineer. I know people who work at Facebook. I have, in the past, considered working there. But now I see its toxicity isn’t a bug, it’s a feature, and I can’t have a part in that. What kind of person could?
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