A former African American Facebook staffer unloaded on the social media platform Tuesday, charging the tech giant has “a black people problem.”
In his post, Mark Luckie explains why he quit, and how he believes Facebook is failing its black employees and black users.
“You can see this reflected in everything from the guest lists of Facebook's external programs, the industry events the company has historically sponsored, the creators and influencers who appear in Explore tabs on Instagram, the power users who are verified on the platforms, and more,” he wrote.
Luckie shared the post with all employees at Facebook earlier this month before he exited the company.
The former staffer said black employees like him are often met with surprise by co-workers who say things like “I didn't know black people worked at Facebook."
And the platform suffers because of it.
“We are continually missing opportunities to engage with groups whose use of our family of products is fundamentally different than the general population,” he wrote.
In an interview with USA Today, Luckie said he felt compelled to pass along “what all the black employees are saying and feeling.”
"I know from being inside Facebook that Facebook doesn’t take any action against the bad things that it has done unless it’s held publicly accountable," Luckie told the news outlet. "I don’t want to say I felt a responsibility, but I guess I felt an ability to speak on behalf of all of these black employees."
In an emailed statement to USA Today, Facebook spokesman Anthony Harrison said the company is working to increase the range of perspectives of those who build its products.
"The growth in representation of people from more diverse groups, working in many different functions across the company, is a key driver of our ability to succeed," Harrison said.
Facebook has come under fire from other quarters as well over access to users’ data, the spread of misinformation, and most recently, for hiring a public relations firm to do opposition research on critics.
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