Demanding to disclose the truth about the suicide of a Chinese programmer, a top student from Tsinghua University was fired by Facebook

Bian Ce Qianming from Aofei Temple
Quantum Bit Report | Public Account QbitAI

This is what is called "free speech" in the United States.

The latest news is that after participating in protests, demanding that the company reveal the truth and accepting interviews in his personal capacity, Facebook Chinese engineer Yi Yin first received a warning letter and was then officially fired.

Yin Yi confirmed the news on LinkedIn and other platforms.

What Yin Yi was protesting was the incident in which a Chinese Facebook programmer committed suicide by jumping off a building.

As more background information of the employee who jumped from the building was exposed, he was suspected of being bullied and unfair in the workplace. Therefore, Facebook's engineers, mainly Chinese, launched a memorial and protest in front of the company on September 26, demanding the truth be revealed and a fair competition environment be provided.

Facebook's public relations director also came to the scene for an interview and responded that further investigation was underway.

But now, Facebook has fired Yin Yi who participated in the protest.

Ironically, in the incident involving the remarks made by Morey, general manager of the NBA Rockets, mainstream American media including the New York Times and the NBA league president all chose to support Morey. So far, Morey has not apologized and there has been no impact.

However, there has been no public report in the three days since Yin Yi was fired for participating in the protests and raising reasonable demands.

Why are Facebook’s Chinese employees protesting?

The core cause was the death of Chinese engineer Qin Chen.

On September 19, the 38-year-old Chinese employee jumped from the fourth floor of Facebook's Silicon Valley headquarters and died.

Later, it was further revealed that Qin Chen was an undergraduate graduate of Electrical Engineering and Automation from Zhejiang University in 1999. He had just joined Facebook last year and took his own life due to work pressure, suppression from superiors and obstacles in transferring to other teams.

According to other Facebook employees, Qin Chen worked hard and had family pressure in his middle age. He was the pillar of his family's life in the United States, but he encountered injustice and bullying from his superiors and was eventually left with no way out.

So on September 26, Chinese people in Silicon Valley went to the front door of FB to protest and demand a fair competition environment.

In front of Facebook's famous "Like" wall, Chinese engineers laid flowers, chanted slogans and expressed their demands. Other engineers passing by also joined in, with the number of people reaching more than 200.

The slogans and banners on site were clear:

• First, they demanded that Facebook disclose the truth about Qin Chen’s death;

• The second is to provide hard-working engineers with a healthier and fairer working environment.

Yin Yi, who was fired, was the one who took the lead in shouting slogans at the scene. He was also fearless and openly wore his Facebook work badge.

Are the protest demands excessive?

According to Tencent Technology, Bill Young, one of the volunteers who organized the protest, gave a clear appeal:

Facebook needs to tell us what happened, what happened when he was at work, what happened a week ago, Facebook knows all this.

The protesters also registered an account called "Justice for Qin" on social media, calling on Facebook to conduct a full investigation and take further action to prevent tragedies from happening again in the future. They also said, "Say no to toxic workplaces!"

So is this a demand that goes too far? To the point of firing employees who participated in the protest?

At least at the protest site, Facebook did not have such an attitude.

In response to the protests, Facebook's director of corporate communications came to the scene and said in an interview with the media that suicide was the result of multiple factors and workplace bullying might not be the only cause of his death.

In a statement provided to the media, Facebook said:

We are saddened by the loss of our employee Qin Chen last week by suicide at our Menlo Park headquarters. We are doing our best to support his family and loved ones during this time.

All of our actions are guided by external experts in world-leading suicide prevention. We care deeply about our people and offer on-site counseling for our employees and those who contract with the company, as well as mental health and suicide prevention support to all employees.

Finally, we bring the community together by creating safe spaces to share openly through our internal resource groups.

Facebook also responded to questions about bullying at work:

Facebook does not tolerate abusive behavior, bullying, or other intimidating or offensive conduct by its employees or others covered by this policy, regardless of whether they fall into a protected category.

If an employee is found to be mistreating his or her co-workers, we will take appropriate steps to stop the behavior.

However, he has different faces in front of people and behind their backs.

Yin Yi, the Facebook employee who participated in the protest and disclosed his identity, was quickly warned and eventually fired.

The fired Yin Yi: Facebook senior engineer, Tsinghua University student

Yin Yi himself also updated his status on his personal LinkedIn, confirming that he was fired and has regained his freedom.

Yin Yi briefly introduced: After participating in the protest, accepting interviews in a personal capacity and asking the company to disclose the truth, I am currently fine. The pressure is a little high. I received a final warning letter and planned to frame it and hang it on the bedroom wall.

According to Yin Yi's LinkedIn account, he graduated from the Computer Science Department of Tsinghua University.

After graduating in 2005, he has been starting a business/working in the gaming industry. In 2016, he went to the University of California, Santa Cruz to study for a master's degree.

In June 2019, he joined Facebook as a senior engineer.

The issue has also been discussed on Zhihu. According to Han Feng, a Zhihu answerer who knows Yin Yi, Yin is not only a tough guy, but also extremely talented.

While studying at the Computer Science Department of Tsinghua University, I also taught myself piano playing and music composition in my spare time, and I have always dreamed of developing RPG games.

"As a game director, screenwriter, and composer, Yin Yi released two galgames, "Narrative Song" and "Narrative Song 2: Promise Under the Stars" in 2011 and 2015 respectively. They received thousands of 5-star reviews on iOS and were recommended on the App Store homepage."

At present, Yin Yi’s resignation has also attracted further attention.

He received a lot of support under the post announcing that he was fired from Facebook.

Some expressed their support and encouragement, while others said they wanted to find him a job or even a girlfriend.

And with the current incident involving NBA Rockets general manager Daryl Morey, Yin Yi's dismissal from Facebook for protesting is more like a mirror.

There were protests on Weibo in China, but there was silence abroad.

Many Weibo users asked, is this the so-called "freedom of speech"?

Reference Links:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Yr8pztMaVFF6BZJZQFhOSw

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yi-yin/detail/recent-activity/

https://new.qq.com/omn/TEC20190/TEC2019092800047400.html

https://www.zhihu.com/question/349618886