THURSDAY, The New York Times published a long story about the rise to power of Stephen Miller, a longtime Donald Trump loyalist known for his harsh views on immigration. Normally, a story like this wouldn’t attract much attention in the tech press. But the article opened with an anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg that immediately raised eyebrows.
The story details a recent meeting Miller had with Zuckerberg when the Meta CEO visited Mar-a-Lago last year. According to The timesZuckerberg – who would soon abandon Meta’s previous fact-checking efforts and abandon the company’s diversity programs – “blamed his former COO, Sheryl Sandberg, for an inclusion initiative at Facebook that encouraged employee expression in the workplace.
This line has sparked a new round of speculation (and some outrage) in tech circles. Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and rose to fame after writing her manifesto on women in the workplace Lean overwas known for its once close partnership with Zuckerberg as head of Facebook. That Zuckerberg would criticize his former lieutenant for having favored “inclusivity” in his company, raised eyebrows even among longtime observers of the company.
“She always knew who Mark Zuckerberg and covered for him,” New York Times Journalist Sheera Frankel, who co-wrote a book on Facebook’s dominance, observed on Bluesky. “The question is whether she will continue to do it when he so blatantly throws her under the (Trump) bus. » Longtime journalist and tech expert Kara Swisher also note that “people I talked to tonight about the Mark/Sheryl era on Facebook are shocked but not surprised that he blames her.”
I also weighed in on my Chat accountsharing a link to a Business Insider history in February that cited an interview in which Zuckerberg said Sandberg raised him “like a parent.” I joked that the comment hadn’t aged well.
But on Friday, Zuckerberg decided to let me (and everyone, I suppose) know that he and Sandberg are still cool, after all. “Sheryl has done an incredible job at Meta and will forever be a legend in the industry,” he wrote in an answer at my post. “She built one of the greatest companies of all time and taught me much of what I know.”
A few minutes later, Sandberg jumped in to helpfully let me know that there are no hard feelings on his part either. “Thanks, @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 most difficult times of my life and continues to this day.
Zuckerberg responded with a single heart emoji.
I asked Zuckerberg if he thought Sandberg was too focused on DEI initiatives at Meta, or if she had taken away the “masculine energy” he had recently. said to Joe Rogan businesses should embody. In particular, he did not deny Time reporting his comments regarding Sandberg, although he claimed they were misinterpreted.
“I answered a question about the origin of the phrase ‘bring your whole self to work,’ and now there’s a whole bogus story saying that I blamed Sheryl for a bunch of things that I didn’t “have never done and never will,” he said. said. (Putting “yourself” to work is a slogan popularized by Sandberg in Lean over. Similar language often appears on The Meta career site when the company highlighted diversity among its employees. “Being your authentic self is the foundation of who we are as a company,” Meta wrote in a statement. deleted since page on her corporate website where she shared her internal diversity reports.)
So, I guess that fixes the problem. Nothing to see here, friends. Mark and Sheryl are definitely still friends. They may no longer work at the same company, but they are still able to come together to address potential Public relations crisis. What could be more inspiring than that?
Updated, January 17, 2025, 4 p.m. PT: This post has been updated to reflect additional comment from Zuckerberg.
