Meta Removes Tampons from Men’s Employee Bathrooms
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is taking several actions to kneel to MAGA, including scrapping Meta's pro-diversity and content moderation policies.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly ordered the removal of tampons from men’s bathrooms at the company’s offices in California, New York, and Texas.
The tampons, initially included in men’s bathrooms to cater to transgender or nonbinary employees who use such facilities, are one example of a deluge of virtue-signaling moves taken by Meta to placate conservatives as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.
Last week, CEO Zuckerberg announced that Meta would eliminate its third-party fact-checking system and replace it with a user-based “Community Notes” feature similar to the model employed by X.
Meta also overhauled its “Hateful Conduct” policy, carving out a host of exemptions that allow certain types of bias-motivated attacks directed at specific groups, including the LGBTQ community, under the guise of promoting “free speech” on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
When The Intercept wrote about the confusing and seemingly contradictory guidelines for determining what types of content are allowed or prohibited on its platforms, Meta locked access to company policies and training materials, which had previously been publicly accessible.
Last Friday, Meta went a step further, announcing it would end diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. It eliminated its chief diversity officer role, ended its goals calling for certain numbers of women and minorities to be hired, and said it would no longer prioritize minority-owned businesses when hiring vendors.
Additionally, Meta reportedly deleted nonbinary and transgender themes from its Messenger chat app, which allows users to customize the app’s colors and wallpaper, as reported by 404 Media.
While some employees have welcomed the company’s right-wing shift, others have expressed discontent, with one telling 404 Media, “No one is excited or happy about these changes. And obviously, the employees who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community are especially unhappy and feel the most unsupported in this.”
“I find it very hard to understand how explicitly carving out which groups of marginalized people can have what we otherwise classify hate speech directed at them will be beneficial for the communities we hope to build on our platforms,” said another employee.
Zuckerberg — one of several tech CEOs who has donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund — reportedly decided to push through the various policy changes after visiting the President-elect at his Mar-a-Lago estate over Thanksgiving.
Zuckerberg and a handpicked team of subordinates then planned, in secret, how to implement those changes — without going through the company’s usual process of inviting employees, civic leaders, and others to weigh in on policy proposals.
Several current and former Meta employees and executives told the Times that the company’s right-wing virtue signaling not only ingratiates the company to political conservatives at a time when Republicans control all levers of government and right-wing populism is ascendant globally, but reflects Zuckerberg’s personal views.
Zuckerberg had previously expressed concerns that progressives were policing speech on online platforms, reportedly “felt railroaded by the Biden administration’s anti-tech posturing,” and was irked by demands from left-leaning individuals, including Meta employees, to police certain types of content that they alleged was degrading, controversial, or harmful.
Speaking with podcaster Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience, Zuckerberg defended the changes, saying it was time to go back to Meta’s “original mission” by giving Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users “the power to share.”
He complained that he had felt pressured by the Biden administration and the media to “censor” certain content that liberals found objectionable.
While Zuckerberg denied pushing through the changes to Meta’s various company policies to appease the Trump administration, he admitted that the election results did influence his decision.
“The good thing about doing it after the election is you get to take this cultural pulse,” he told Rogan. “We got to this point where there were these things that you couldn’t say that were just mainstream discourse.”
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.