Facebook Fires Chinese Employee for Exposing Worker's Rights...

Source: Bloomberg

The firing of a Chinese Facebook Inc. coder who accused the social media giant of mistreating foreign employees has provoked an outpouring of outrage on domestic social media.

Software engineer Yi Yin struck a chord when he posted on WeChat that he was forced out for lack of judgment. The 37-year-old said he got an emailed warning the same day he joined a memorial at Facebooks Menlo Park campus for a colleague, also from China, who killed himself by jumping from the fourth floor of a company building last month.

The Sept. 26 vigil had morphed into a demonstration over alleged discrimination against Facebooks Chinese employees.

Yin told Bloomberg News that HR sent the email and then called him into a meeting the day after, during which he was told to stop speaking publicly about the death because of privacy concerns.

Yin got a second and final warning just a few days later, which he said didnt cite any breaches of company rules or other specific reasons. He was dismissed Oct. 7. Facebook spokeswoman Pamela Austin confirmed Yin had been dismissed but denied his participation in the rally was the cause. She declined to comment on the details Yin described. Another company representative, Charlene Chian, said Facebook doesnt comment on the specifics of personnel issues.

The engineer went on social media to describe his experience, which was widely covered by Chinese media at a time tensions with the U.S. are running high and many feel Washington is trying to contain Chinas ascendancy. His LinkedIn post about the firing has garnered more than 7,000 likes, with many commenting to offer him a new job.

A discussion thread about his dismissal on Chinese Q&A site Zhihu has been viewed over 1.6 million times, after his tale initially spread across WeChat, which has a billion-plus users.

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