Facebook introduces new guidelines for employee communication, bans political images in profile pictures

Facebook has given a fresh outline of its new rules concerning communication among the company’s employees within the workplace.

In the new set of rules announced on Thursday September, 24, 2020, Facebook employees would be required to use a photo of themselves or their initials as their profile pictures.

The new rules came following an announcement by the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, a week ago. He had informed employees that the new principles are intended to guide internal debates and conversations.

The new rules were triggered by several leaks from employees’ Workplace posts over the past few months as well as during their weekly Q&A with Zuckerberg.

With the new rules in place, employees would not be able to promote a particular candidate or political cause by using candidates’ or parties’ images in their profile pictures.

Speaking about the policy, Facebook spokesman, Joe Osborne, in a statement, said,

“We deeply value expression, open discussion, and a company culture built on respect and inclusivity.”

“What we have heard from our employees is that they want the option to join debates on social and political issues rather than see them unexpectedly in their work feed. So we’re updating our policies and work tools to make sure our people have both voice, and choice,” he added.

Similarly, the new principles would expand the company’s concept of harassment which would in turn prevent any insensitive, derogatory and degrading communications among employees that could give rise to enmity and hostility in the work environment.

Facebook is also determined to separate political discussions from work related communications as it would specifically mark what part of the workplace cold be dedicated to political and social discussions.

The company would also increase support for moderation of workplace groups basically used for nonofficial dealings.