Facebook exec appearance at Kavanaugh hearing irks workers

AFP  |  San Francisco 

is trying to calm employee anger about its supporting nominee by going to his hearing, reported on Thursday.

is to be among executives taking part in a town hall style meeting with employees on Friday where viewpoints will be shared, according to the Journal, which cited unnamed people familiar with the situation.

Hundreds of employees expressed outrage, confusion and frustration after an image showed at Kavanaugh's hearing before US lawmakers last week, the Journal reported.

The topic came up during a routine workplace question-and-answer session with Zuckerberg late last week, with the reportedly saying he would not have made the same decision but that Kaplan's personal move did not violate Facebook policy.

"I've talked to Joel about why I think it was a mistake for him to attend given his role in the company," the Journal quoted Facebook as saying in an internal post.

"We support people's right to do what they want in their personal time but this was by no means a straight-forward case." Kaplan was described as a close friend of Kavanaugh, who is accused of sexually assaulting three women decades ago. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

The US on Thursday stepped closer to a weekend confirmation of Kavanaugh but angry protesters converged on Capitol Hill demanding his withdrawal over the sexual assault allegations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Fri, October 05 2018. 10:15 IST