Meta clamps down on internal discussion of Roe v. Wade’s overturning.

People with knowledge of the situation said that Meta told its workers on Friday not to talk about the Supreme Court ruling on abortion.

According to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity, managers at Meta put in place a policy that put "strong guardrails around social, political and sensitive conversations" in the workplace. Managers pointed employees to a May 12 company memo after the Supreme Court leaked a draft opinion on the legality of abortion.

Meta stated in a memo obtained by The New York Times that it would not allow open discussion of abortion at work because of the risk of creating a hostile work environment.

The people said the policy made them angry. Some people contacted their managers and colleagues to express their disagreement with the company. Two people said that managers were told to be neutral on the topic and that messages that violated the policy were removed. Meta employees used internal communication forums to discuss socio political issues.

The Meta software engineer said in a post that he was sad that employees weren't allowed to talk about the Supreme Court ruling. moderators quickly remove posts or comments mentioning abortion from the company's internal communication platform. Group of up to 20 employees who follow a set playbook can only have limited discussion.

A spokesman for Meta wouldn't say anything.

After years of employee unrest and leaks to the media, Meta is trying to control internal debates. According to the May 12 memo, the company updated its respectful communication policy in 2020.

Two years ago, George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by the Minneapolis Police Department. Meta employees were told that they couldn't discuss political or social issues on the company's employee message board.

Some workplace groups were made private in October after a former employee leaked thousands of internal research documents to the media. According to comments seen by The Times, employees were upset about the loss of openness.

Meta said in the May 12 memo that it had previously allowed open discussion of abortion at work but later realized that it had led to significant disruptions in the workplace. Many internal posts about abortion were taken down for violating the company's harassment policy after the policy led to a high volume of complaints to the human resources department.

Employees were told to support each other in one-to-one conversations or in small groups of like-minded colleagues, according to a memo.

Meta said it would reimburse travel expenses for employees who needed to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services.

The Supreme Court's ruling jeopardizes the health and lives of millions of girls and women across the country, according to a post on Facebook by Meta's chief operating officer.

She wrote that it threatens to undermine the progress women have made in the workplace. It will make it more difficult for women to achieve their goals.