Meta expands workplace ban on political discussions so employees can focus on the company’s ‘priorities’

Meta is the latest Big Tech to reinforce its policy that prohibits employees from discussing sensitive and political topics in the workplace. The company has expanded the list of topics after banning discussions about abortion laws earlier this year.

An internal memo on Meta’s new “community engagement expectations” leaked earlier this week with updates to the company’s rules that govern the kinds of discussions allowed in the workplace. Fortune, which obtained screenshots of the memo, reported that the letter came from Meta’s head of people, Lori Goler. Inputs from chief information and security officer Guy Rosen and Meta’s head of product Naomi Gleit were reportedly included in the memo as well.

Goler made a reference to an earlier statement from CEO Mark Zuckerberg about Meta’s need to “make a number of cultural shifts” to focus on its “priorities.” And part of those changes, Goler continued, is the “trade-off” of no longer allowing employees to talk about sensitive and political topics in “every type of expression” in the workplace.

“We’re increasing the number of topics that can no longer be discussed at work based on what we’ve seen to be very disruptive in the past,” Goler added. The policy update expands on a previous rule Meta implemented that prohibited employees from having discussions about abortion policies after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which protected abortion rights, last June. Meta is now reportedly prohibiting discussions of, among others, vaccine efficacy, gun ownership laws, pending legislation, and elections.

Employees will not be punished for talking about these topics outside the workplace. In the same memo, Goler announced that Meta would make fewer public statements and will limit its participation in advocacy letters on certain issues.

Meta has since confirmed the policy updates. “We’ve updated our employee expectations to provide direction around what is appropriate for our people in the workplace, so that we can reduce distractions while maintaining an environment that is respectful and inclusive and where people can do their best work,” the company told Fortune.

The social media giant is not the first major tech firm to issue a ban on political discussions in the workplace. Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase implemented a similar policy in 2020, followed by the web software company Basecamp last year.

Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash