- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has committed a $10 million donation from the company towards groups fighting racial injustice.
- Facebook’s donation comes amid an outbreak of protests across the US against the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck.
- Acknowledging that $10 million “can’t fix this”, Zuckerberg added that he and his wife Priscilla Chan had invested $40 million annually into racial justice causes via their foundation.
- Zuckerberg is facing widespread internal and external dissent over Facebook’s decision not to remove social media posts by President Trump that appeared to threaten protesters in Minneapolis.
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Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has spoken out for the second time in two days about the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In a late Sunday post, Zuckerberg committed $10 million to groups fighting racial inequality.
The 36-year-old billionaire entrepreneur wrote: “The pain of the last week reminds us how far our country has to go to give every person the freedom to live with dignity and peace.
“It reminds us yet again that the violence Black people in America live with today is part of a long history of racism and injustice. We all have the responsibility to create change.”
Zuckerberg noted that $10 million wasn't a huge amount of cash to fight racial injustice, but said he and his wife had invested $40 million annually to the same cause via their foundation.
He continued: "We need to know George Floyd's name. But it's clear Facebook also has more work to do to keep people safe and ensure our systems don't amplify bias."
Facebook is tearing itself apart over the decision to keep up Trump's posts on the protests
Zuckerberg's latest post comes amid widespread outrage that Facebook will take no action on Trump's social media post from May 29 about the US protests that have broken out against Floyd's death.
Specifically, Trump appeared to threaten the initial protesters in Minneapolis with military intervention, stating both on Facebook and Twitter that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
Twitter placed a block on the same Trump post, saying that it violated its rules by "glorifying violence."
At the time, Zuckerberg defended Facebook's decision, stating in a May 30 post: "Personally, I have a visceral negative reaction to this kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric ... I know many people are upset that we've left the President's posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible..."
Since Zuckerberg's post, several Facebook employees have publicly spoken out to express their disgust with the company's stance. It's rare to see Facebook staffers publicly speaking out against upper management, but several criticized the firm's inaction on Trump's posts.
"I'm a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark's decision to do nothing about Trump's recent posts, which clearly incite violence. I'm not alone inside of FB. There isn't a neutral position on racism," an R&D product employee tweeted.