When the Covid-19 layoffs began a couple of months ago, I wondered whether this would dampen the employee activism we had seen at big tech companies in recent years. On Monday, I got my answer—no.
That’s one conclusion from the virtual walkout of Facebook employees protesting the company’s hands-off policy toward Trump’s posts. Facebook hasn’t laid off anyone, so its employees may not feel as nervous as others might about publicly criticizing their company’s management. We also don’t know how many more Facebook employees would be publicly advertising their dissent if we didn’t face record unemployment.