Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit As a part of the Audit process, the Auditors had conversations with a small group of employees in winter 2019 who lead the company resource groups representing the URM populations. (Because the Auditors only had access to a small group of employees, comprehensive employee surveys or interviews were outside the scope of this Audit.) While employees did share positive sentiments on feeling empowered to build community, these conversations were primarily designed to elicit their general concerns and recommendations for approaches to improve the experience of URM populations at Facebook. Given the concerns expressed publicly by current and former employees, the Auditors wanted to include some themes of feedback here. The Auditors emphasize that the themes outlined here only reflect some of the views expressed by a small group of employees and are not to be construed as the views of all of the members of the Facebook Resource groups, or employees at large. Themes that emerged in the Auditors’ conversations included: • a concern about the lack of representation in senior management and the number of people of color (with the exception of Asians and Asian Americans) in technical roles; • concerns about the performance evaluation process being consistently applied; • a lack of recognition for the time URM employees spent on mentoring and recruiting other minorities to work at Facebook — this feedback was particularly pronounced with resource group leaders who are also managers; • a greater sense of isolation because of their limited numbers compared to the overall workforce, especially in technical roles; • a lack of awareness of all the internal programs available to report racial bias and/or discrimination; • a desire to have more of a say in policies and products that affect their communities; • a desire to see more data about rates of attrition. To be sure, many of these diversity and inclusion issues are not unique to Facebook. Other tech companies and social media platforms have similarly low representation of URMs, and have similarly faced criticism for failing to bring employment opportunities to minority communities or foster inclusive environments where URMs stay and succeed. A recent report (Internet Association Inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Benchmark Report) highlights the lack of progress throughout the tech industry. Civil rights leaders continue to press the business case for inclusion and argue that diversity is a source of competitive advantage and an enabler of growth in a demographically changing society. However, the fact that this is an industry-wide issue, does not absolve Facebook of its responsibility to do its part. Indeed, given the substantial role that Facebook plays in the tech industry and the outsized influence it has on the lives of millions of Americans and billions of users worldwide, it is particularly important for Facebook to maintain a diverse and inclusive workforce from top to bottom. The civil rights community and members of Congress are concerned that Facebook is not doing enough in that regard. There is a strongly held belief by civil rights leaders that a diverse workforce is necessary and complementary to a robust civil rights infrastructure. That widely held belief was elevated by the House Committee on Energy 61