Facebook announces curbs on internal debate of political issues

Facebook Inc on Thursday said it would update its internal discussion policies to impose restrictions on employees' ability to debate social and political issues. Osborne added that details of the new rules will be announced next week. "What we've heard from our employees is that they want the option to join debates on social and political issues rather than see them unexpectedly in their work feed," Osborne said in a statement.

Facebook Inc on Thursday said it would update its internal discussion policies to impose restrictions on employees' ability to debate social and political issues. Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne said that Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg outlined his plans for the curbs during a weekly employee Q&A. Osborne added that details of the new rules will be announced next week.

"What we've heard from our employees is that they want the option to join debates on social and political issues rather than see them unexpectedly in their work feed," Osborne said in a statement. "We're updating our employee policies and work tools to ensure our culture remains respectful and inclusive."

Osborne said the new rules would apply to employee discussions of how Facebook handles politically sensitive content on its platforms, which were the subject of intense internal debates this summer.