On Thursday New York Times published long story about the rise to power of Stephen Miller, a longtime supporter of Donald Trump known for his hard-line views on immigration. Typically, a story like this doesn't get much attention in the tech press. But the article began with an anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg, which immediately raised eyebrows.
The article details Miller's recent meeting with Zuckerberg when the Meta CEO traveled to Mar-a-Lago last year. According to TimesZuckerberg, who will soon resign from Meta's previous post. fact checking effort and ditch corporate diversity programs—”blamed his former COO Sheryl Sandberg for an inclusivity initiative at Facebook that encouraged employee self-expression in the workplace.”
This phrase caused a new round of speculation (and some outrage) in technical circles. Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and rose to fame after writing the Women in the Workplace manifesto. bend overwas known for its close partnership with Zuckerberg, who headed Facebook. That Zuckerberg will accuse his former senior aide of promoting “inclusiveness” at his company, raised eyebrows even among longtime observers of the company.
“She always knew who Mark Zuckerberg was and covered for him,” New York Times reporter Shira Frankel, who co-wrote a book about Facebook's dominance, noted: on Bluesky. “The question is whether she will continue to do this when he so brazenly throws her under the (Trump) bus.” Journalist and longtime tech expert Kara Swisher too marked that “people I've talked to tonight from the Mark and Cheryl era on Facebook are shocked but not surprised that he's blaming her.”
I also weighed my Topics accountby sharing a link to Business Insider story from February, which quoted 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 I guess everyone else) know that he and Sandberg are still cool after all. “Cheryl has done an amazing job at Meta and will forever be an industry legend,” he wrote in answer to my post. “She built one of the greatest businesses of all time and taught me much of what I know.”
A few minutes later Sandberg jumped up to kindly let me know that there are no hard feelings on her part either. “Thank you @zuck. I will always be grateful for the many years we spent together building a great business and for your friendship, which helped me through the most difficult times of my life and continues to this day.”
Zuckerberg responded with a statement smiley with one heart.
I asked Zuckerberg if he thought Sandberg was too focused on DEI initiatives at Meta, or if she took away from him the “masculine energy” he had recently said to Joe Rogan corporations must implement. It is noteworthy that he did not deny “Times” reported his comments regarding Sandberg, although he claimed they were misinterpreted.
“I answered a question about where the phrase 'commit to work' came from and now there's a whole false narrative about me blaming Cheryl for a lot of things that I never did and never will,” he said. said. (Bringing your “whole self” to work is a slogan popularized by Sandburg in bend over. Similar formulations often appeared on Meta Jobs Site when the company emphasized diversity among its employees. “Being yourself is the core of who we are as a company,” Mehta wrote on her blog. since deleted page on her corporate website, where she shared her internal diversity reports.)
So, I think this solves the problem. Guys, there's nothing to see here. Mark and Cheryl are definitely still friends. They may no longer work for the same company, but they can still come together to prevent a potential threat. PR crisis. What could be more inspiring than this?
Update January 17, 2025, 4:00 pm PT: This post has been updated to reflect additional comment from Zuckerberg.