Mark Zuckerberg reportedly intervened after employee posted message defending police and questioning racial bias after Jacob Blake shooting

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly intervened when an employee at the social media site prompted anger among colleagues when he defended police officers following the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Last week, a Facebook employee shared a post to the site’s internal messaging board, Workspace, where he defended “well-intentioned law enforcement officers who have been victimised by society’s conformity to a lie,” according to a report obtained by The Daily Beast.

In the post titled, In Support of Law Enforcement and Black Lives, the employee also questioned the role of race in police shootings and claimed victims of police violence are often under the influence of drugs or did not listen to officers’ orders.

He wrote: “My heart goes out to the Blake family. It also goes out to the well-intentioned law enforcement officers who have been victimised by society’s conformity to a lie.”

The employee added: “What if racial, economic, crime, and incarceration gaps cannot close without addressing personal responsibility and adherence to the law?”

The post was published days after Jacob Blake was paralysed, when he was shot seven times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, sparking protests in the city and in states across the US.

The arguments made in the post caused outrage from several Facebook employees, which led the author to delete some of his colleagues’ comments, as he felt they were “unproductive and overwhelming.”

The exchange on Workspace became so heated that on Monday Mr Zuckerberg intervened and posted a note on the channel, where he wrote that he did not agree with the discussion surrounding real issues faced by African Americans.

“We designed our respectful communications policy to allow people to discuss very different viewpoints,” he wrote. “But I’m concerned that some people are doing that without appreciating the impact their words are having on our black community.”

The Daily Beast reported that Mr Zuckerberg then told employees that discussions of controversial topics will not be allowed on a company-wide forum, but will be moved to smaller channels.

“You won’t be able to discuss highly charged content broadly in open groups,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote in his note on Monday.

The CEO added: “As you know, we deeply value expression and open discussion, but I don’t believe people working here should have to be confronted with divisive conversations while they’re trying to work.

“Let me be absolutely clear about our stance as a company: systemic racism is real. It disadvantages and endangers people of colour in America and around the world.”

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