Report: Facebook Has Struggled to Hire Talent Following Data Scandals

A recent report claims that tech giant Facebook has struggled to hire new talent to the firm following its recent series of user data scandals. CNBC reports that Silicon Valley tech giant Facebook is still suffering significant fallout from the March 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal as recruiters for the company claim that job candidates are now regularly turning down employment offers at the firm. Over half a dozen recruiters have now left Facebook in recent months, telling CNBC that the tech firm saw a significant decrease in job offer acceptance rates following the Cambridge Analytica scandal which saw the personal data of 87 million Facebook users left vulnerable. Facebook reportedly saw a significant increase in students from top universities declining Mark Zuckerberg’s job offers. These include individuals from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and other Ivy League universities. Since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook’s job offer acceptance rate has fallen from an average of 85 percent o for the 2017-2018 school year to between 35 percent and 55 percent since December. The acceptance rate from candidates from Carnegie Mellon University fell to 35 percent.

Software engineer candidates for the company’s product teams have also seen a significant drop in acceptance rates from nearly 90 percent in late 2016 to nearly 50 percent in early 2019. Facebook spokesperson Anthony Harrison pushed back hard against these claims from recruiters, stating that the company’s headcount grew 36 percent year over year from the first quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019. Harrison contacted CNBC stating that “these numbers are totally wrong.” He continued to say: “Facebook regularly ranks high on industry lists of most attractive employers. For example, in the last year we were rated as #1 on Indeed’s Top Rated Workplaces, #2 on LinkedIn’s Top Companies, and #7 on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work. Our annual intern survey showed exceptionally strong sentiment and intent to return and we continue to see strong acceptance rates across University Recruiting.”

Candidates are reportedly asking recruiters tougher questions about Facebook in general following the company’s recent data breaches. “Usually half of the close is done for recruiters with the brand Facebook has,” one recruiter who left this year said. “This is the first time a lot of our folks have had to be on top of their game to make sure top candidates don’t slip through the cracks.” One recruiter who left the firm recently stated: “The biggest thing that impacted people at Facebook is that we found out information at the same time as the general public did. It was like, ‘Wait, shouldn’t one of our leaders have told us about this first versus our parents or friends reaching out?’ It was a shock.” A former Facebook university recruiter said: “The privacy scandals, the Cambridge Analytica stuff — students aren’t as interested in going to Facebook anymore.”

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/05/17/report-facebook-has-struggled-to-hire-talent-following-data-scandals/

Ron DeSantis: Dumping Migrants in Florida is Unacceptable

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s governor plans to fight a federal plan to fly hundreds of immigrants from the Mexican border to two South Florida counties, saying Friday he’ll take his case to President Donald Trump. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis made his remarks a day after being caught off guard when Broward and Palm Beach county officials said they were notified by U.S. Border Patrol that more than a 100 immigrants would be sent weekly to each of the counties starting in about two weeks. “We cannot accommodate in Florida just dumping unlawful migrants into our state. I think it will tax our resources, the schools, the health care, law enforcement, state agencies,” DeSantis told reporters in Sarasota after a bill signing ceremony.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Thursday he was notified of the plans by the Miami-based office of the U.S. Border Patrol, and that a total of 1,000 people per month would be brought to the two counties from the El Paso, Texas, area. He said immigrant parents and children would be processed in both Florida counties, given a notice to appear in court, and then released into the community. “If you believe what was leaked and reported, the plan would be to simply put migrants out on the street,” DeSantis said. “This would be potentially just releasing people into our society. With someone just coming across the border, we have no idea what their background is, we don’t know what type of criminal activity they’ve been involved in. We don’t know anything.” DeSantis wasn’t aware of the plans until county officials reported the information to the media. He said he was on the phone with the White House on Thursday. “This was not something that came down from the White House. This was something that came out of the agency. Sometimes this stuff happens. It’s gonna ultimately be something I’m going to have to talk to the president about,” DeSantis said.

Trump and DeSantis have a close relationship. Trump’s endorsement propelled DeSantis from underdog status to ultimate winner in last year’s governor’s race, and DeSantis has met with him several times in the White House, securing promises to increase hurricane aid and federal money for Everglades restoration. DeSantis also noted that he recently signed a bill banning sanctuary cities and appeared upset that the plan to send immigrants to Florida came after the pledge to help federal immigration authorities. “We basically as a state said, `We’re going to work with the federal government constructively. We’re going to work with them to help them remove criminal aliens. We’re not going to be like some of these other states that are not allowing federal authorities to come into a jail or a courthouse,”‘ he said. “We’ve been very cooperative.”

https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2019/05/17/ron-desantis-dumping-migrants-in-florida-is-unacceptable/

WordPress.com Blacklists Blogs Critical of Islam

Popular blog hosting platform WordPress.com has begun a censorship spree, blacklisting at least two blogs dedicated to monitoring the spread of radical Islam. The blog Creeping Sharia, which documented what it describes as “the slow, deliberate, and methodical advance of Islamic law” was taken offline by WordPress earlier this week. Visitors navigating to the long-running blog are now met with the message “creepingsharia.wordpress.com is no longer available.” “This blog has been archived or suspended in accordance with our Terms of Service,” explains the message. On its official Twitter account, Creeping Sharia claimed that WordPress.com’s decision to suspend service followed a warning from the hosting platform that one of its posts violated Pakistani blasphemy law. Creeping Sharia says it received a similar warning from Twitter after tweeting a link to the piece.

WordPress.com also banned the blog Muslim Statistics, which was dedicated to collecting and presenting ” international statistics, government statistics, newspaper articles and reports related to Muslim immigration and Muslim issues in non-Muslim societies.” Unlike the major social media platforms, which often use the excuse of “hate speech” to ban critics of Islam, WordPress.com does not appear to have a clearly-defined “hate speech” policy. Instead, its user guidelines specifically state that it will not remove “hyperbolic or generally offensive language.”

Elsewhere in its terms of service, WordPress.com states that “we do not have any control over those websites and are not responsible for their contents or their use.” Unlike the WordPress open source code, which allows anyone to host a WordPress blog on their own personal website, WordPress.com is a centralized hosting platform run by the company Automattic Inc. that has the ability to ban blogs hosted on its platform. Shortly before banning the two blogs critical of Islam, WordPress.com also banned “Chateau Heartiste,” an alt-right “pickup artist” blog. This was the first notable incident of WordPress.com seemingly banning a blog for political reasons. Breitbart News has reached out to Automattic Inc. for comment.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/05/17/wordpress-com-blacklists-blogs-critical-of-islam/