Not many Meta employees will have to move to Texas, though

It’s unclear whether moving teams to Texas will be more than symbolic. Common sense suggests that if a person in California has any political preferences, moving to Texas is unlikely to immediately change their views.

In the same town hall call, company management described the Texas move as an attempt to address a perception problem with California. That reasoning frustrated officials who believed Meta was harming its workforce to appease Trump, the three officials told WIRED. Metta and Trump remain in litigation in federal court in Northern California over the suspension of his account following the riot on January 6, 2021. at the US Capitol. Trump claims his constitutional right to free speech has been violated. Zuckerberg recently met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to mediate the case, according to Wall Street Journal.

This week, Meta plans revealed to cut 5 percent of its workforce starting next month. The company said it plans to fill those positions throughout the year, a move that could hire more employees in Texas. Following Meta’s decision last week to close its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program, there will be no hiring targets for historically underrepresented groups.

Last week’s changes to hate speech rules allow users to post harsher criticisms, including about gender and ethnicity. During the Rogan podcast, Zuckerberg said users will now be able to advocate on issues like whether they should serve in military combat roles. Some employees have warned that Meta is now supporting the spread of misogyny and bigotry on its services, according to two of the workers.

During the call with officials at City Hall, an executive defended the policy changes, saying they would open the door to multiple possibilities, such as being able to call men lazy on Facebook without fear of being censored, according to one attending officer.

On the law enforcement side, Meta is going down your current fact-checking programlimiting the use of automated filters to suppress allegedly offensive posts and encouraging more political content in news feeds.

On Tuesday, 12 civil rights groups that say they have advised Metta for years wrote to the company to express “serious concern” about the revised policies. “These changes are devastating to free expression, as they will subject members of protected groups to more attacks, harassment and harm, drive them off Meta services, impoverish conversations, eliminate viewpoints, and silence dissenting and often censored voices wrote the group, which includes the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Human Rights Campaign and the National Black Justice Collective.

In the Security and Integrity Town Hall, management will not commit to continuing to publish statistics on the gender and racial makeup of the company’s employees. “This is capitulation in the worst way,” says one.

Separately, some managers have told their teams they plan to continue pushing for diverse hiring, according to three officials.

Additional reporting by Steven Levy.