On Thursday, The New York Occasions printed a lengthy story in regards to the rise in energy of Stephen Miller, a longtime loyalist of Donald Trump identified for his hardline views on immigration. Usually, a narrative like that wouldn’t get a lot consideration within the tech press. However the piece opened with an anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg that instantly raised eyebrows.
The story detailed a current assembly Miller had with Zuckerberg when the Meta CEO traveled to Mar-a-Lago final 12 months. In response to The Occasions, Zuckerberg — who would quickly surrender Meta’s prior fact checking efforts and ditch tech/metas-right-wing-reinvention-also-includes-an-end-to-dei-programs-and-trans-messenger-themes-204031848.html” data-ylk=”slk:company variety;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas”>company variety packages — “blamed his former chief working officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Fb that inspired workers’ self-expression within the office.”
That line set off a contemporary spherical of hypothesis (and a few outrage) in tech circles. Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and rose to fame after authoring her ladies within the office manifesto Lean In, was identified for her as soon as shut partnership with Zuckerberg on the prime of Fb. That Zuckerberg would blame his former prime lieutenant for fostering “inclusivity” at his firm, raised eyebrows even amongst longtime observers of the corporate.
“She all the time knew who Mark Zuckerberg and coated for him,” New York Occasions reporter Sheera Frankel, who co-wrote a e-book about Fb’s dominance, noticed on Bluesky. “ The query is whether or not she’s going to proceed to take action when he so blatantly throws her beneath the (Trump) bus.” Journalist and longtime tech pundit Kara Swisher likewise noted that “of us I talked to tonight from the Mark/Sheryl Fb period are shocked however not stunned by his blaming her.”
I additionally weighed in on my Threads account, sharing a hyperlink to a Enterprise Insider story from February that quoted an interview through which Zuckerberg mentioned that Sandberg had raised him “like a dad or mum.” I joked that the remark hadn’t aged properly.
However on Friday, Zuckerberg determined to let me (and I assume everybody else) know that he and Sandberg are nonetheless cool, in spite of everything. “Sheryl did wonderful work at Meta and can eternally be a legend within the trade,” he wrote in a reply to my put up. “She constructed one of many biggest companies of all time and taught me a lot of what I do know.”
A couple of minutes later, Sandberg jumped in to helpfully let me know there aren’t any arduous emotions on her aspect, both. “Thanks, @zuck. I’ll all the time be glad about the various years we spent constructing an important enterprise collectively – and in your friendship that acquired me by way of a number of the hardest occasions of my life and continues to today.”
Zuckerberg responded with a single heart emoji.
I requested Zuckerberg if he felt Sandberg was too targeted on DEI initiatives at Meta, or whether or not she took away from the “masculine power” he just lately told Joe Rogan companies ought to embody. Notably, he has not denied The Occasions’ reporting about his feedback concerning Sandberg, although he claimed they’re being misconstrued.
“I answered a query about the place the phrase ‘carry your complete self to work’ got here from, and now there’s an entire bogus narrative saying I blamed Sheryl for a bunch of stuff that I by no means did and by no means will,” he said. (Bringing your “complete self” to work is a slogan popularized by Sandberg in Lean In. Comparable language typically appeared on Meta’s careers site when the corporate highlighted variety amongst its workers. “Being your genuine self is the muse of who we’re as an organization,” Meta wrote on a since-deleted web page of its company web site the place it shared its inner variety reviews.)
So, I assume that settles it. Nothing to see right here, of us. Mark and Sheryl are positively nonetheless associates. They might not work on the similar firm anymore, however they’re nonetheless in a position to come collectively to move off a possible PR crisis. What may very well be extra inspiring than that?
Replace, January 17, 2025, 4PM PT: This put up was up to date to mirror an extra remark from Zuckerberg.
