Facebook shut down an anonymous online group for employees in late 2016 after it was increasingly used to talk about Donald Trump and other US presidential candidates. While initially pitched in 2015 as a way for employees to voice their concerns, the nature of the group became more political around last year’s election. A poster advertising the group on Facebook’s campus ahead of the election read “Trump Supporters Welcome.” The group was abruptly shut down by Facebook in December 2016. CEO Mark Zuckerberg later told employees that the group had been used to harass others.

An online discussion group inside Facebook in which employees talked anonymously turned ugly and was ultimately shut down last year after the divisiveness of the US presidential election transformed the forum into a hub for political comments that alarmed management, according to several people familiar with the matter.

The internal group, named Facebook Anon, was created in May 2015 as a way for employees to freely share concerns and opinions about the workplace. But Facebook shut the group down in December 2016 for what CEO Mark Zuckerberg later described as spreading harassment.

While never pitched as a forum specifically for conservatives, Facebook Anon became heavily used by right-leaning employees in the months surrounding Trump’s election, several people with knowledge of the group said. Just before the election, a poster advertising the group on Facebook’s campus read “Trump Supporters Welcome.”

The previously unreported incident highlights the tricky balance Silicon Valley tech companies face between protecting their employees’ rights to free speech and combatting hate speech.

Earlier this month, a Google employee’s internal memo criticizing the company’s diversity initiatives caused an uproar inside and outside the company. James Damore was fired and quickly became a celebrity to conservatives and members of the “alt-right,” who said he represented an example of Silicon Valley’s intolerance for conservative viewpoints.

Facebook caused a stir among conservatives when it was accused of demoting right-leaning news outlets last year. And as Facebook centers its mission statement on creating groups for its consumer service, Facebook Anon is a telling example of how one of its own internal groups backfired.

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“Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together, and a cornerstone of our culture is being open,” Facebook Head of People Lori Goler said in a statement sent to Business Insider on Wednesday.

“The FB Anon internal Facebook group violated our Terms of Service, which require people who use Facebook (including our employees) to use an authentic identity on our platform. Last year we disabled any anonymous internal groups or pages within Facebook, and reminded our people of the places at our company where they can have discussions about issues that matter to them, openly or confidentially as appropriate.”

‘Silenced, but not silent’

Foto: After Mark Zuckerberg told employees why Facebook Anon had been shut down, this poster commemorating the group was put up in Facebook’s campus. source Business Insider

Facebook Anon first became controversial inside Facebook after employees used it to debate the Black Lives Matter movement in early 2016, according to a former group member. It was around that time that Zuckerberg denounced employees who crossed out “Black Lives Matter” and wrote “All Lives Matter” on the walls of Facebook’s California headquarters.

With hundreds of members, what was posted on Facebook Anon was regularly discussed by employees outside of the group and throughout the company, according to current and former employees. The group was created as a side project by a handful of employees in early 2015.

While all employees use a work version of Facebook’s website to communicate with one another, several people said that the anonymous group gave many the opportunity to vent their complaints or concerns about company policy and office culture more candidly. The group was often used for talking about less controversial topics, like the ethics of taking home extra dinner from the company cafeteria.

The tone of Facebook Anon became increasingly political as the 2016 presidential campaign season began, the people said, and as right-leaning employees began to see the group as a safe haven.

“There was a feeling that everyone at the company was a Democrat or left-leaning,” one former employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told Business Insider, while another said that management didn’t envision “the wildfire around the election.”

“I don’t think they really thought there would be too many people on the Trump side,” the former employee said.

Facebook decided to pull the plug on the group one month after Trump was elected president. Zuckerberg explained why during one of the company’s regular all-hands meetings three months later.

After an employee asked why the group had been shut down, Zuckerberg explained that the forum had been used by employees to harass people and stressed that the behavior wouldn’t be tolerated, according to people in attendance.

Shortly after Zuckerberg’s explanation was given, another poster was put up in Facebook’s campus featuring the group’s beginning and end dates. Above the dates read the words “Silenced, but not silent.”

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