In an otherwise innocuous part of Facebook’s expansive Silicon Valley campus, a locked door bears a taped-on sign that reads “War Room.” Behind the door lies a nerve center the social network has set up to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories ahead of upcoming elections. Inside the room are dozens of employees staring intently at their monitors while data streams across giant dashboards. On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, “Nothing at Facebook is somebody else’s problem.” That motto might strike some as ironic, given that the war room was created to counter threats that almost no one at the company, least of all CEO Mark Zuckerberg, took seriously just two years ago — and which the company’s critics now believe pose a threat to democracy.
Two classic American novels have been temporarily pulled from bookshelves in Accomack County Public Schools in Virginia.
Media outlets report that earlier this month, a parent filed a complaint about "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" for their use of racial slurs.
Superintendent Chris Holland says the use of both novels in classrooms and libraries has been suspended per guidelines in the Accomack County Public Schools policy manual.
A committee consisting of a principal, librarian, teacher, parent and potentially others will review the complaint and make a recommendation to the superintendent.
A racial slur appears 219 times in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and 48 times in "To Kill a Mockingbird."
