x.com/Jason/status/2098512888667291998
1 correction found
employees should never say anything publicly unless it's cleared with comms first
That overstates the policies of several companies named in the post. Publicly available Meta, Google, and Microsoft policies allow employees to speak in their own personal voice; they restrict speaking on the company’s behalf without authorization, not all public speech unless comms approves it.
Full reasoning
This claim describes the listed companies' rules as if employees must get communications approval before any public statement. The public policies I checked do not say that.
- Meta (Facebook) says employees may engage in personal political activity "on their own time, with their own funds and in accordance with their own political preferences and desires." The restriction is that they must "never represent that such activities are being conducted on behalf of Meta." That is a rule against unauthorized company representation, not a rule requiring comms clearance for all public speech.
- Google/Alphabet likewise states in a public proxy filing that its Personal Political Activity Policy allows employees to conduct personal political activity "in their own voice, on their own time, and with their own resources." Again, that directly contradicts the idea that employees should never say anything publicly unless cleared first.
- Microsoft says employees "do not speak on behalf of the company unless authorized to do so," but it also explicitly contemplates employee social-media speech: "If we endorse our products and services on social media, we make our company affiliation clear and state our honest opinion or belief." That is not a blanket pre-clearance rule for any public statement.
Because the post names these companies as examples, a single counterexample would be enough to make the universal claim false; here, multiple companies' own published rules contradict it.
3 sources
- Meta Political Engagement | Meta
Meta encourages informed participation in the political process. Meta employees may participate in personal political activities, on their own time, with their own funds and in accordance with their own political preferences and desires. Employees must keep such activity separate from work and never represent that such activities are being conducted on behalf of Meta.
- Alphabet proxy statement (abc.xyz)
our Personal Political Activity Policy provides that employees may conduct any personal political activity in their own voice, on their own time, and with their own resources.
- Read Our Business Standards | Microsoft Legal
We do not speak on behalf of the company unless authorized to do so ... If we endorse our products and services on social media, we make our company affiliation clear and state our honest opinion or belief about the endorsed product or service.