On Thursday, The New York Occasions printed a prolonged story concerning 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 accordance with The Occasions, Zuckerberg — who would quickly resign Meta’s prior reality checking efforts and ditch company range applications — “blamed his former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusivity initiative at Facebook that encouraged employees’ self-expression in the workplace.”
That line set off a recent 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 always knew who Mark Zuckerberg and covered for him,” New York Occasions reporter Sheera Frankel, who co-wrote a ebook about Fb’s dominance, noticed on Bluesky. “ The question is whether she will continue to do so when he so blatantly throws her under the (Trump) bus.” Journalist and longtime tech pundit Kara Swisher likewise famous that “folks I talked to tonight from the Mark/Sheryl Facebook era are shocked but not surprised 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 during which Zuckerberg stated that Sandberg had raised him “like a parent.” I joked that the remark hadn’t aged nicely.
However on Friday, Zuckerberg determined to let me (and I suppose everybody else) know that he and Sandberg are nonetheless cool, in any case. “Sheryl did amazing work at Meta and will forever be a legend in the industry,” he wrote in a reply to my submit. “She built one of the greatest businesses of all time and taught me much of what I know.”
A couple of minutes later, Sandberg jumped in to helpfully let me know there are not any onerous emotions on her facet, both. “Thank you, @zuck. I will always be grateful for the many years we spent building a great business together – and for your friendship that got me through some of the hardest times of my life and continues to this day.”
Zuckerberg responded with a single coronary heart emoji.
I requested Zuckerberg if he felt Sandberg was too centered on DEI initiatives at Meta, or whether or not she took away from the “masculine energy” he just lately informed Joe Rogan firms ought to embody. Notably, he has not denied The Occasions’ reporting about his feedback relating to Sandberg, although he claimed they’re being misconstrued.
“I answered a question about where the phrase ‘bring your whole self to work’ came from, and now there’s a whole bogus narrative saying I blamed Sheryl for a bunch of stuff that I never did and never will,” he stated. (Bringing your “whole self” to work is a slogan popularized by Sandberg in Lean In. Related language usually appeared on Meta’s careers website when the corporate highlighted range amongst its workers. “Being your authentic self is the foundation of who we are as a company,” Meta wrote on a since-deleted web page of its company web site the place it shared its inner range studies.)
So, I suppose that settles it. Nothing to see right here, of us. Mark and Sheryl are positively nonetheless associates. They could not work on the similar firm anymore, however they’re nonetheless in a position to come collectively to go off a possible PR disaster. What could possibly be extra inspiring than that?
Replace, January 17, 2025, 4PM PT: This submit was up to date to mirror a further remark from Zuckerberg.
