A Meta employee says she's under investigation after claiming the firm censors pro-Palestinian views

A Meta employee said a letter she posted alleging censorship of pro-Palestinian views collected 450 signatures before it was deleted.

• A Meta employee posted a video on Instagram claiming she is under investigation. 
• She said it was because she distributed a letter alleging Meta censors pro-Palestinian views. 
• The company has recently come under fire for suppressing content about Palestine on its platforms. 

An NYC-based Meta employee claims she is under investigation by the company for violating its rules after she shared a letter internally alleging that the firm censors pro-Palestinian views.

The employee said she had circulated a letter asking Meta to "acknowledge Palestinian lives lost" and "transparent action for internal and external censorship on our platforms."

The Financial Times first reported on the video, which remains publicly available. The worker has worked at the company since 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile. Business Insider has reached out to her for comment.

In the video, which Business Insider has seen, the worker says a group of Meta employees wrote the letter, which she then shared with an internal group.

"Internally we have been trying to raise these concerns and alarms but there is a rule that you cannot talk about disruptive topics, so anything we post about in regards to Palestine gets taken down," the Meta employee said in the video, claiming that her colleagues are not allowed to post about family members who have died in Gaza. 

According to her video, the employee later received a message from an unspecified colleague saying the letter violated company rules. The letter and the form posted with it were removed and deleted a few hours later, she said.

She said that she received a message from HR the next day that she was under investigation. In the video, which appeared to be shot from inside Meta's offices in parts, she said that three weeks had passed, and she hadn't received any more information. 

"I am not trying to bring Meta down," she said in the video.

She added in the caption: "My goal is simply awareness to the larger Meta community about the extent of external and internal censorship. I want employees to feel safe in speaking up without fear of retaliation." 

According to the employee, the letter referenced criticism from lawmakers and human rights groups about how Meta has handled content related to Palestine. This includes a 51-page report from Human Rights Watch published in December about what it describes as a documented pattern of the company censoring and removing content in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook.  

It also referenced a letter sent by US Senator Elizabeth Warren to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on December 14, in which she called on the company to provide transparency about its content moderation practices and "discriminatory algorithmic design." 

In the video, the worker showed herself entering Meta's New York offices, noting her badge still worked.

Meta changed its policies on internal communications in late 2022, introducing a set of rules known as its Community Engagement Expectations, which limit employees from engaging in and sharing certain types of discussions on internal systems.

"We're doing this to ensure that internal discussions remain respectful, productive, and allow us to focus. This comes with the trade-off that we'll no longer allow for every type of expression at work, but we think this is the right thing to do for the long-term health of our internal community," Lori Goler, Meta's head of people said in an internal message at the time, per Fortune.

Prohibited topics include the efficacy of vaccines, gun ownership, and abortion legislation, the message added.

Meta declined to comment when contacted by Business Insider about the video's content. BI did not immediately receive a response from the employee.