Facebook designed a tool that would let employers blacklist words like 'unionize' in employee chats

• Facebook reportedly touted the ability for employers using Workplace, its internal messaging product for business, to suppress employees' discussions of unionization.
• The company gave an internal presentation debuting new features Wednesday, including the ability for employers to censor certain topics being discussed by employees. One example the presentation gave was the word "unionize," The Intercept reported.
• A Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider that the "unionization" example was "poorly chosen and should never have been used," and that the company has paused development on that Workplace feature.

Facebook designed a built-in feature for Workplace, the company's office-communication product meant to compete with Slack and Microsoft Teams, that would let employers suppress workers' discussions of unionization.

At an internal presentation about Workplace on Wednesday, Facebook debuted a new feature for the product that lets employers exert "content control" over certain topics trending among employees, The Intercept's Lee Fang reported. The presentation included the word "unionize" as an example of a term employers might want to suppress.

The internal presentation was reportedly taken offline the next day.

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A Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider that the company has paused development on the Workplace feature in question.

"While these kinds of content moderation tools are useful for companies, this example was poorly chosen and should never have been used. The feature was only in early development and we've pulled any plans to roll it out while we think through next steps," the spokesperson said.

The internal presentation at Facebook comes as employers are increasingly turning to high-tech solutions to suppress unionization efforts. Business Insider reported in April that Amazon-owned Whole Foods used a heat-map tool to track stores at the highest "risk" for unionization. Before that, Walmart hired intelligence-gathering service Lockheed Martin to monitor unionization efforts at its stores across the US.

Facebook has been rapidly beefing up Workplace since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to win over offices that are working remotely.

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