Zuckerberg scolds Facebook staff for defacing Black Lives Matter slogans

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is ordering his company’s employees to stop crossing out the phrase “Black Lives Matter” on the company’s famous signature wall.

Zuckerberg sent out a memo late Wednesday night after staffers began scrawling out the slogan and replacing it with “all lives matter” on the signature wall at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., according to Gizmodo.

{mosads}“Despite my clear communication at [a] Q&A last week that this was unacceptable, and messages from several other leaders across the company, this has happened again,” he wrote in a private memo on a company announcement page for employees only.

“I was already very disappointed by this disrespectful behavior before, but after my communication I now consider this malicious as well,” Zuckerberg continued.

“Regardless of the content or location, crossing out something means silencing speech, or that one person’s speech is more important than another’s. Facebook should be a service and a community where everyone is treated with respect.”

Zuckerberg also expressed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, which advocates against racial discrimination, police brutality and unfair mass incarceration.

“There are specific issues affecting the black community in the United States, coming from a history of oppression and racism,” he said. “‘Black Lives Matter’ doesn’t mean other lives don’t – it’s simply asking that the black community also achieves the justice they deserve.

“This has been a deeply hurtful and tiresome experience for the black community and really the entire Facebook community, and we are now investigating the current incidents.”

Zuckerberg closed his memo by promoting a Facebook town hall on March 4 concerning black culture, including the Black Lives Matter movement. Facebook’s staff is only 2 percent black, according to Gizmodo.

“We’ve never had rules about what people can write on our walls,” Zuckerberg added of Facebook’s headquarters. “We expect everyone to treat one another with respect.”