A Facebook shareholder lost her lawsuit alleging the lack of diversity on the company’s board, a corporate culture of racial “tokenism,” and loose policing of hate speech on the platform, with a federal judge dismissing the claims on Friday afternoon.The development was widely anticipated following a hearing on Thursday, during which Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler made no secret that she believed shareholder Natalie Ocegueda filed her lawsuit prematurely and in the wrong court. Beeler also criticized the shareholder for filing allegations—for example, asserting that Facebook has an “all-white” board—that she said were belied by the factual record.“The Facebook defendants contest the plaintiff’s allegations that Facebook’s practices are unlawful, emphasizing its commitment to diversity and inclusion and citing—among other things—the actual composition of its board and its nomination process: two of nine directors are Black, a third Black director stepped down in March 2020 to join Berkshire Hathaway, four of nine directors are women, one is openly gay, and, since its adoption of its diversity policy in 2018, a majority of new nominees have been Black or women,” the judge wrote.
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At a Zoom hearing on Thursday, Ocegueda’s attorney Francis A. Bottini, Jr., from the firm Bottini and Bottini, said that they based the “all-white board” allegation on Facebook’s website as of the date the lawsuit was filed and described the platform’s dispute on the claim as “cherry-picking.”
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The board’s composition was not the lawsuit’s only complaint. Facebook employees revolted—and numerous advertisers jumped ship—when, in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests on June 1 of last year, the company declined to take down Trump’s “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” tweet.
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