Saleforce’s LinkedIn hacked to show BLM support after employees speak out

A pair of Black former employees recently came forward to express their frustration while working at the software giant Salesforce.

Biba Adams

Mar 5, 2021

A hacker breached the LinkedIn account of the software giant Salesforce during the CPAC conference last Friday, posting a supportive message about Black Lives Matter from the page.

“Hey everybody, we just want you to know what while CPAC is going on, BLACK LIVES STILL F—–G MATTER. PEACE,” the post read. It was shared from the software company’s official account, which has more than 2 million followers.

The logo for cloud-based enterprise software company Salesforce is shown at its headquarters in San Francisco. (Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

In recent weeks, two Black former employees came forward to express the frustrations of working at Salesforce. Cynthia Perry, a former senior manager who did design research, posted her resignation letter on LinkedIn. “I resigned,” she wrote, “because I experienced countless microaggressions and inequity during my time at Salesforce. I wrote a resignation exit letter to several leaders, and I want to share it here with all of you.”

In her missive, Perry wrote she had “been gaslit, manipulated, bullied, neglected and mostly unsupported” while working at the company.

As of November 2020, only 3.4% of Salesforce employees were Black. That figure is up less than 1% from two years prior.

Vivianne Castillo, another past Salesforce employee who worked as a manager for design research and innovation, also shared her resignation letter, in which she detailed how, as a Black woman, she was often asked to help with internal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on top of her regular work with no additional compensation.

Last year, Salesforce vowed to increase their Black workforce to 50% by 2023.

The hacked message on LinkedIn, which has since been deleted, was greeted with many positive reactions, including emojis and thumbs-up by site users, according to CNBC.

“Last Friday, we became aware of unauthorized access to one of our social media accounts,” a Salesforce spokesperson told the network. “We took quick action and secured it.”

The company didn’t comment on the hacking’s contents, only sharing a blog post from last month called “Our Progress So Far on Racial Equality and Justice — Reflecting During Black History Month.”

“We are incredibly grateful for our employees who dedicated their time and energy to this important work and to all those around us who continue to inspire and lead the change,” officials wrote.

In the post, the company shared that it has trained employees on Racial Equality Ally Training and Inclusive Promotions Training aimed at addressing bias and microaggressions. They also noted they have provided $10,000 grants to 180 San Francisco small businesses during the pandemic.

“We deeply listened to the communities impacted, we set goals and metrics to track success, we committed funding to the work,” their statement read, “we stood up new programs and processes, and we empowered leaders to drive change.”

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