Chronic. Does Facebook have the right to hire a former Fox News employee? Not without triggering a flock of critics on the left: when, on January 28, was announced the future appointment of Jennifer Williams as head of video for Facebook News, the tab that the platform wants to dedicate to news content, Media Matters, an NGO close to the Democrats, pointed to the eighteen years she spent in the very conservative news channel. And recalled that she was the producer of "Fox & Friends" in 2007, when this program had caused controversy claiming that Barack Obama had been brought up in a radical Koranic school.
"This recruitment is only the last example where Facebook is on the right side", complained Matt Gertz, Media Matters, while warning: "Facebook's efforts to coax the right will not draw less criticism from the Conservatives. "
For some, this hiring is part of Facebook's strategy to try to appease Donald Trump and the Republicans who, since 2016, accuse the social network of having a "Bias" partisan favorable to the Democrats – without however demonstrating it. In recent months, Mark Zuckerberg has met twice with the American president and elected officials and editorialists of the American right, reported the media CNBC and Politico.
Dilemma
The Facebook example illustrates a more general dilemma posed to American digital giants: should they get closer to Trump camp, even if it means attracting criticism? Or oppose it, at the risk of inciting reprisals? The dilemma is all the more pressing as the Republicans threaten the "GAFA" – Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple – with sanctions and regulations, or even with dismantling.
From the start of Mr. Trump's tenure, the big bosses of the "tech" sector have drawn the wrath of some of their employees, by agreeing to have dinner with Mr. Trump, while they criticized at the same time his immigration.
Google seems to be caught in the crossfire. In 2018, the company renounced a contract signed with the American army for the analysis of drone images, under pressure from protesting employees. Later, the company wanted to include in its ethics committee on artificial intelligence the very conservative president of the think tank Heritage Foundation, Kay Coles James … but the controversy sparked forced it to dismantle the said committee.
