QUESTION #1
If YOU BECAME AWARE THAT A FACEBOOK EMPLOYEE WAS MAINTAINING A PERSONAL BLOG ADVOCATING HOLOCAUST DENIAL, WHAT WOULD YOUR RESPONSE BE, IF ANY?
QUESTION# 2 (ADDED JUNE 9, 1:55 PM)
IF YOU EXTENDED AN OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT AND SUBSEQUENTLY DISCOVERED THE INDIVIDUAL RAN A HOLOCAUST DENIAL WEB SITE, WOULD YOU STILL MAKE THE HIRE?
22 Responses
i have absolutely no patience with or use for holocaust deniers — it's a particularly childish form of obtuseness, or insanity.
HOWEVER, i feel strongly that a personal blog is a personal blog and should not result in any ramifications at your dayjob (unless you are directly maligning the company you work for; that's a different kind of issue).
i maintain a very in-your-face political blog that i most of the executives at my former job would most likely have disagreed with in every way. yet, since i never mentioned the name of my employer nor ever blogged about anything related to the company, it really wasn't any of their business.
holocaust deniers, as idiotic as they may be, deserve the same freedom of speech as left-wing ranters.
just my .02.
Jackie, intelligent response, good points. My counter. It is not a perpetration of hate to voice political opinions. Would your employee maintain the same tolerant stance if you changed your blog to talk espouse hatred of Muslims,African Americans, Gays or Jews?
jackie sheeler commented on Open Letter To Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg – THE CUBAN REVOLUTION:
i dunno. seems like one short step from denying these holocaust-denial groups to then denying whole swathes of groups. for example, much of the conservative right views pro-choice discussion as a hate crime against the unborn. likewise, pro-choicers may view far-right anti-choice discussions as hate speech against women (as much of it in fact happens to be). it's a slippery slope to start making value judgments on a case-by-case basis and shutting down groups. can the carnivores then shut down the vegan groups, and vice versa? what about all these mafia quiz games on FB? aren't they promoting negative italian stereotypes, and thereby deserve to be axed?
i agree completely with you that these holocaust denial groups are often thinly veiled (if veiled at all) anti-semitic groups. but there are a lot of anti-various-things groups on facebook, and i for one don't want some kind of corporate oversight as to what should and should not be allowed to exist.
fight fire with fire, i think. start your own group, the anti-holocaust-denial group, and shine a light on the idiocy that is preached in those rooms. infiltrate the group with an undercover profile, and tell the world what is being said there. if enough people listen, they will eventually have to shut themselves down, rather than having anybody do it for them. it takes more work that way than trying to turn facebook into some kind of authoritarian father-figure, but it's also a lot less dangerous.
I guess it would all depend what the values of your employer are on those issues. I suspect if you worked for a a pro-life group and started blogging supporting late term abortions, you would be gone…. IMHO. Remember that we are not talking about 1st Amendment government censorship. Employers are allowed to put their values into play on these issues and yes, dictate what employees can and can not blog about. It happens all the time.
When I was selling recruiting ads, I came across an outwardly-Christian company of some sort (I don't remember what type). Before you were to apply, you were to affirm your believe in various theological tenets, including opposition to abortion of any type. It struck me as odd, but felt that it was within their rights as an employer. We shouldn't have to pretend that beliefs don't say something about a person's character, or, at the very least, their ability to work beside us without unnecessary friction. I would have a problem working with someone who held deeply bigoted ideas, even privately. And yes, I consider holocaust denial a bigoted belief. Slippery slope? Perhaps. But if someone I work with starts fawning over Hitler on his personal blog, you can bet I'll lay him out.
Jackie, intelligent response, good points. My counter. It is not a perpetration of hate to voice political opinions. Would your employee maintain the same tolerant stance if you changed your blog to espouse hatred of Muslims,African Americans, Gays or Jews?
Jackie, intelligent response, good points. My counter. It is not a perpetration of hate to voice political opinions. Would your employee maintain the same tolerant stance if you changed your blog to espouse hatred of Muslims,African Americans, Gays, Jews or other ethnic/religious group?
I would consider it a hate crime. Termination of employment would not be unreasonable. That employee is a representative of facebook. Thus, he or she must conduct theirselves in a manner that ia appropriate and acceptable.
Great Question, Denise from DLDESIGNS
I'll combat this question with another: If you wouldn't fire this person. Would you, the employer of a social media company, hire someone after you found that they ran a holocaust denial website?
Everyone says that if you are online, and you want to be hired, make sure even your twitter account is clean.
I do still feel a bit weird about saying someone can't have an idea, just because it is false/wrong/morally unaligned with myself. People out there don't believe that Kennedy's assassination went down as the U.S. said it did. Does that mean their ideas should be discounted?
That is a great #2 Question. As to part 2, I have never heard anyone classify the a Kennedy conspiracy theory as hate speech… :o)
Point taken; however, if you listen to the wrong people, there was plenty of hate speech involved in the early finger pointing.
facebook is not just a social network.
It becomes one of the most influental medias that gain on power every day.
The mass persuation is enormous, primary within teenagers. Beeing 14 or even 16 and reading blogs about holocaust denial can lead to extreme opinion building.
Fb forms the new generation mind. Its extremely dangerous to let them allow persuade the young people.
I am saying it really by beeing witness of such cases.
Brian,
To answer your first question. I definitly do not want to censor anyone from their personel business but if they are associated with a particular group and it does not fall into your company's TOS then yes it needs to be handeled.
Question 2: I would not make the hire. Why go through the day/week/year wondering what else could be next. Is this person going to start having a "rally" ? What's next??? You never know what that person may do down the road once hired. No matter what they are a reflection on your company. even when not at work. I am not sying that it is right ,but thats just the way it is. In todays world you cannot assume anything.
In my opinion "Blogs" are one thing – a personel statment .
These FB groups are a "recruitment process" for anti-semetic thinking. Have we not learned as a society from the past or are we going to continue to make the same mistakes over and over again? This is why Rawanda , Darfur and countless other countries continue to have genocide, because not enough people stand up for what they truly believe. Everyone wants to say " As long as it's not in my backyard" well people need to realize that this is in OUR backyard and something needs to be done about it. I hope I have not offended you or anyone else. I am just tired of people throwing the 1st Ammendment out there on anything some says /does/writes. I dont think our forefathers that implemented those Amendments were talking about these issues.
The real issue in hiring a Holocaust denier is this person is either really stupid or delusional. Is that the type of person you want working for you. It is not a point of "Freedom of Speech" as much as sound business decision. Do you really want to hire someone that stupid?
actually Guy, some of the most educated people in the world are Holocaust Deniers
And this just proves that being highly educated does not make you moral, ethical, rational or maybe even intelligent.
What is there to deny??? Fact is fact.
Denying a horrible fact like the holocaust reveals the evil, selfish, and ignorant tendencies that we are all prone to (for being human) but taken to an extreme that borderlines stupidity, ignorance, and lack of compassion. Denying the holocause is for those without a heart, even if they kind of have a mind.
education does not mean intelligent.
Come on now, this is a softball. Would you hire all the people you've represented?
nope
Given: MFers who deny the Holocaust are Anti-Semites. Historical revisionism is a façade for hate speech. Question: If we confine Holocaust Deniers to anonymous websites, how do we know who they are? Example: R. Poplowski was an unnamed Holocaust Denier. His friends and family didn’t know it. He killed 3 Pgh PD. if he’d been on Facebook no guarantee that his family would have stopped him. but if he is only anonymous guaranteed they wouldn’t. And didn’t.