Tech companies rally behind protestors, call for change

As riots and protests break out throughout the country, companies like Nike, Apple and Amazon have expressed their support in those protesting racial inequality. Yahoo FInance’s Melody Hahm joins The Final Round panel to discuss.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: Now, switching to maybe a little bit more of a brazen corporate we've got to say something the kind of world is what's happening in the tech world. And Melody Hahm, you've taken a look at what we've heard from a number of tech firms. And I think it's interesting how much we lump tech together.

But in this instance, I think they all stand apart, because where Facebook fits into forming this discourse is very different than where Apple fits in. And, yet, both of these statements are seen in some respects as a tech CEO says a thing. But the way Mark Zuckerberg handles this is far more delicate and in my opinion would be more impactful than what we hear from Tim Cook.

MELODY HAHM: Yeah, of course. And then just thinking about today, the news out of Facebook, there is a virtual lockout that's happening right now where several employees-- I think dozens right now-- have an out-of-office message saying that they are not responding to emails. And they are protesting Zuckerberg's decision to not fact check Trump's posts. And in addition to that, the fact that the kind of lack of statement and lack of solidarity that Zuckerberg has shown, not just during this incident, but basically during the tenure of Facebook's history that has come to light-- just some stats for you.

Of course, Silicon Valley in stark contrast to a company, like Nike, just thinking about the lack of diversity in the workforce but also the kinds of population that they are recruiting to the workforce for so long, it has been overwhelmingly white. Yes, there's a lot of Asian representation with East Indians, in particular, East Asians and Indian populations.

But then if you think about the black and Hispanic population, those are sorely underrepresented in Silicon Valley. And I think the latest stats out of Facebook is 3.8% of the overall workforce there is black. So just thinking about the lack of comment from Zuckerberg, whereas Instagram did release a comment saying share black stories and almost use it as an opportunity for folks to use another hashtag to get more traffic and more engagement on their posts.

I do want to note that Facebook did pledge $10 million to different organizations that are bridging social inequality and injustice. And then you look at a company like Verizon, our parent company. You wouldn't squarely classify that as tech. But Hans Vestberg, our CEO, did announce today that we are also committing $10 million.

I want to point out the timeline too. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was the first to actually come out with a statement in solidarity on Thursday afternoon. Tim Cook closely followed after. Twitter's Jack Dorsey did step up to the plate. And then throughout the weekend, there were these kind of trickling rhetoric from different CEOs.

And to your point, Myles, it's very interesting to see the dichotomy of certain individual CEOs, like the Stewart Butterfields of the world who run Slack, taking the opportunity to write thoughtful threads to say that he doesn't know the answers to a lot of questions to say he wants help and resources to try to understand as a white man, his own privilege leading this company.

And then there are other corporate executives who just retweeted their corporate statement. That's a little bit of a pity full screen, right? So there is a huge chasm that we're seeing. And I think even within the social media world, seeing folks like CEO Evan Spiegel speak up, saying that there needs to be a fund for reparations that there needs to be more investigation into, you know, allowing for extra funds to be given to black families who have suffered from the lasting impact of slavery.

Those are some really interesting sentiments coming out. I get it. Right now, it seems like just rhetoric. But that's a huge step forward, I would say, for a very overwhelmingly white tech community up until this point.

DAN ROBERTS: And guys, can we just zoom in on Facebook, which I think is it's a really interesting story in all this, because Facebook was really already under fire after, of course, the split in terms of how it handled the President Trump tweet when these protests first began more than five days ago.

You know, Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg really making a point of saying, well, we're not going to do what Twitter is doing. We're not going to censor arbitrary speech or label this in any way. And then, of course, the situation got even worse when it came out that Zuckerberg had a phone call with Trump, which, of course, you're the CEO of a big public company. You can have a phone call with the president. But unsurprising why during this time, that was really viewed cynically.

And I saw someone reach that and say, oh, it was Zuckerberg's annual performance review with Trump. And so all that coming to a head, of course, now, as what we're talking about is happening with many, many companies coming out trying to show their support for everything going on. And Facebook, man, I don't really see how they clean this up, because even if you try to say, you know, as other companies are saying-- other tech giants we support. And black lives matter. And we support free speech and these protest.

Well, you know, everyone is kind of feeling in the same line in terms of its treatment of President Trump's comments and how Zuckerberg is different from Jack Dorsey in that regard. And, of course, now, you're seeing many, many Facebook employees, as Melody said, a virtual walkout. And all the tweets when Facebook employees are coming out.

Here's what I just saw from last night-- Jason Toff-- is, "I work at Facebook. I'm not proud of how we're showing up. The majority of co-workers I've spoken to feel the same." And I retweeted that. I was interested to see that someone else then replied and said to Jason Toff. This is the Facebook employee. Someone said, "Go back to work and shut your mouth. You and your co-workers are a major reason why the society is divided."

So it's also a hard time to be a Facebook employee and say, oh, I don't like how my company is doing it, because so many people are so disillusioned with Facebook. They say, well, don't work there then, which, of course, is easier said than done. But, you know, I just think it's going to be really interesting to see how things shake out. And Facebook really differing. You know, you've got a Twitter versus Facebook situation now, amid everything else happening.

MYLES UDLAND: Yeah, I guess shut up and code is the new shut up and dribble. But it sort of finds its way into all parts of our life--