On Thursday, the New York Times published a lengthy article on the rise to power of Stephen Miller, a longtime supporter of Donald Trump known for his hard-line views on immigration. Typically, such stories would not receive much attention in the tech press. But the article opened with an anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg that immediately raised eyebrows.
The article detailed Miller’s recent meeting with Zuckerberg during the Meta CEO’s visit to Mar-a-Lago last year. According to the Times, Mr. Zuckerberg will soon abandon Meta’s previous fact-checking efforts and eliminate its corporate diversity program, but added that “Facebook encourages employee self-expression in the workplace.” He criticized former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg for his comprehensive efforts.” ”
That sentence sparked fresh speculation (and some outrage) in the tech world. Ms. Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and gained fame writing the “Women’s Workplace Manifesto” and “Lean In,” formed a close partnership with Mr. Zuckerberg, who was once the head of Facebook. He was known for building. Mr. Zuckerberg’s accusation of his former top aide for promoting “inclusivity” at his company raised eyebrows even among longtime observers of the company.
“She always knew who Mark Zuckerberg was and was covering for him,” New York Times reporter Sheila Frankel, co-author of a book about Facebook’s dominance, told Blue Sky mentioned in. “The question is, now that he’s thrown her under the (Trump) bus so blatantly, will she continue to do so?” Kara Swisher, a journalist and longtime technology commentator, similarly said: “The people I spoke to tonight from Mark/Cheryl’s Facebook days are shocked but not surprised by his accusations.”
I also commented on my Threads account and shared a link to a Business Insider article from February that cited an interview in which Zuckerberg said Sandberg raised him “like a parent.” . I joked that that comment hasn’t aged very well.
But on Friday, Zuckerberg decided to let me (and probably everyone else) know that he and Sandberg are still cool after all. “Cheryl did an amazing job at Meta and will forever be an industry legend,” he wrote in response to my post. “She built one of the greatest businesses of all time and taught me much of her knowledge.”
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A few minutes later, Sandberg jumped in and kindly let me know there were no hard feelings on her part either. “Thank you, @zuck. I will always be grateful for the years we spent building a great business together, and for your friendship that has carried me through some of the most difficult times of my life and continues to this day. .”
Zuckerberg responded with a heart emoji.
I asked Zuckerberg if he feels Sandberg is too focused on Meta’s DEI efforts, or if he feels Sandberg is focusing too much on Meta’s DEI efforts, or what Sandberg recently told Joe Rogan the company should embody. I asked him if he felt like she was taking away his “masculine energy.” Notably, he did not deny the Times report, although he claimed that his comments about Sandberg were misconstrued.
“I answered the question, ‘Where did the phrase ‘go to work’ come from, and now I blame Cheryl for all the things I have never done and will never do?” “There’s a story going around that’s completely bogus,” he said. (Bringing your whole self to work is a slogan Sandberg popularized in Lean In.) Similar language was used by Meta when the company emphasized diversity in its workforce. “We are a company where being who you are is fundamental to who we are as a company,” Mehta said on the company’s website, which shared internal diversity reports, which have since been deleted. written on the page).
So I think that settles it. There’s nothing to see here, folks. Mark and Cheryl are definitely still friends. They may not be able to work for the same company anymore, but they can still band together to avoid a potential PR crisis. What could be more inspiring than that?
Updated January 17, 2025, 4:00 PM PT: This post has been updated with additional comments from Zuckerberg.
