Facebook Warns Employees to Avoid Wearing Company-Branded Clothing

Following the “indefinite” suspension of President Donald Trump from its platform, Facebook has warned employees to avoid wearing company-branded clothing over fears for their safety.

Business Insider reports that the tech giant Facebook told its employees on Monday to avoid wearing clothing that suggests they work at the company as a safety precaution. The announcement comes shortly after the social media platform made the decision to indefinitely suspend President Trump from its platform last week.

The Information obtained an internal memo sent to Facebook staff on Monday which reads: “In light of recent events, and to err on the side of caution, global security is encouraging everyone to avoid wearing or carrying Facebook-branded items at this time.”

Facebook’s security team posted the memo in an internal workplace board that can be accessed by more than 566,000 employees.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the suspension of President Trump’s account in a Facebook post last week:

The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.

His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.

Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.

Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.

We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.

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