Mozilla to fire suspected employee posting hate speech on Reddit

Mozilla is showing an even stronger commitment to a diverse workplace, thanks to a new pledge by its CEO to fire an “employee” who feels otherwise. In a project meeting, Chris Baird called out a Reddit user by the name of aoiyama who claims to work for the firm, saying that their use of hate speech will not be tolerated. The individual has expressed delight in the recent departure of Christie Koehler, saying that “everyone was glad to see the back” of the firm’s community organizer. The user then added that “when she and the rest of her blue-haired, nose-pierced asshole feminists are gone, the tech industry will breathe a sigh of relief.”

Baird himself tackled the point head-on and his remarks are self-explanatory enough, so here’s an edited transcript:

“It’s been brought to our attention that there’s been anonymous postings to Reddit under the handle aoiyama that crossed a line from criticism to hate speech. There’s a lot to suggest that they’re a Mozillian [an employee]. Specifically, when I’m talking about crossing the line from criticism to hate speech, I’m talking about when you start saying that ‘someone’s kind doesn’t belong here and we’ll all be happy when they’re gone.’ If that’s not hate speech, it’s pretty damn close and we’re not going to walk that line as Mozilla. So if, and when, we identify who this person is and if they are an employee, they will be fired. Either way, they are not welcome to continue to participate in the Mozilla project, so if you cross that line, I’m asking you now: please leave, because you’re not welcome.”

This isn’t the first time that Mozilla has had to publicly affirm its commitment to diversity and equality in recent years. Last year, newly-minted CEO Brendan Eich was revealed to have donated money to support a ban of equal marriage in California. Understandably, the backlash to Eich’s decision was public and vocal, and the executive stepped down after just 11 days in the hot seat. In addition, Koehler was critical of Mozilla’s diversity policies and spoke about receiving hostility from colleagues for trying to make the company more accessible. In tandem, these incidents hint at a deeper issue within Mozilla’s corporate culture which Baird is going to have to deal with sooner rather than later.

Filed under:
Internet

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Via:
The Verge

Source:
Mozilla, Reddit

Tags: ChrisBaird, Equality, HateSpeech, Mozilla, Reddit, Sociality

BBC’s license fee study muddies the debate it tries to solve

WIth the BBC’s funding firmly in the government’s sights, the broadcaster has published a new study attempting to highlight its value. With help from research agency MTM, the Beeb removed access to its TV and radio broadcasts, as well as its websites, from 70 households in order to find out whether they would be missed and whether British families would still be prepared to pay for a licence fee after a brief hiatus. While some are claiming the report is a victory for the BBC, its findings aren’t as simple as they initially look.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p030n8sg/player

In the “Life without the BBC” household study, more than two-thirds of people who originally opposed paying the £145.50 licence fee changed their minds after their nine-day exile. In fact, 33 out of the 48 households that wanted to either pay nothing or significantly less for BBC services said they were now willing to contribute £2.80 a week. One family member who opposed the licence fee admitted: “It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I didn’t realise I’d miss it quite as much as I did.” Some were less trusting of rival services, particularly for news and sport, while others praised its educational programmes, particularly for children.

While the report shows that the majority of families want the BBC and are willing to pay, there’s still a large contingent that wants the licence fee scrapped, even after they were deprived of its services. At the start of the research, 22 households said they’d pay £2.80 a week or more, but that dropped to 21 families once the study had concluded. Some families considered the BBC to be an “unnecessary expense for the (limited) volume they consume,” with 12 out of 15 households naming personal value as the reason they didn’t want to pay.

The BBC argues that because it reaches 97 percent of the UK on a weekly basis, it believes those who are unwilling to pay are likely to still be utilising its services in some way. It sees these people as “opportunities,” allowing it “to build on what they consume already and increase the value that the BBC delivers to them.”

Ultimately, it boils down to this: 33 out of 48 households that wanted a change are now happy, 21 out of 22 that were happy are still happy, but that still means 16 out of 70 families remain unconvinced. Is it fair to force the country to pay a license fee, when 21 percent of those studied, and a sizeable portion of the country in general, might not be interested in BBC services?

Filed under:
Home Entertainment, HD

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Via:
BBC Media Centre

Source:
Life Without The BBC Study (PDF)

Tags: bbc, hdpostcross, licence fee, online, radio, report, study, tv, uk-feature