Day: June 2, 2020

In an internal video call with Facebook employees on Tuesday viewed by Recode, CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on his controversial decision to take no action on a post last week from President Donald Trump. In the post, Trump referred to the ongoing protests in the US against racism and police brutality and said, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Facebook’s handling of Trump’s post — which included language similar to what segregationists used when referring to black protesters in the civil rights era — has divided employees at Facebook and prompted them to openly criticize Zuckerberg in a …

An effort to raise awareness about police brutality and systemic racism, which started in the music industry before being co-opted by countless Instagram users, appears to be backfiring somewhat.

The “Blackout Tuesday” campaign began as a push for a day of reflection from music artists and labels in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in Minneapolis last Monday. But almost immediately after the campaign started, countless Instagram users uploaded solid black squares in solidarity and added a #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. That meant the new Blackout Tuesday posts showed up as rows and rows of …

President Donald Trump made his first White House address on the protests around the US Monday. From the Rose Garden, about 15 minutes before Washington, DC’s 7 pm ET curfew took effect, he addressed peaceful protesters nationwide, telling them, “I will fight to protect you.”

However, it quickly became clear that law enforcement would instead fight protesters on his behalf. And his insistence in increasing the number of law enforcement personnel in Washington, DC, only led to greater chaos Monday night, with numerous examples of the sort of police action protesters have been demonstrating against.

In his speech, Trump did …

The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop for Washington, DC, condemned President Trump shortly after law enforcement officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a peaceful protest — all so that Trump could have a photo op in front of a church.

Sunday night, as large groups of peaceful protesters and much smaller groups of less peaceful demonstrators filled the streets of DC, a fire was set in the basement of St. John’s Church, an Episcopal church located near the White House. The fire was extinguished, and the church reportedly suffered only minor damage.

Nevertheless, …

Just minutes before President Donald Trump was scheduled to give a speech in the White House Rose Garden about the anti–police brutality protests, law enforcement officers outside the White House launched tear gas at hundreds of peaceful protesters gathered in neighboring Lafayette Square.

It produced a shocking scene of federal officials shooting a weapon banned from warfare at Americans. The crowd scattered, allowing Secret Service, National Guard, and Park Police personnel to make a path for Trump and his team to visit a nearby church after his address.

That led to widespread speculation that Trump or someone else at the …