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 latest 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 surrender Meta’s prior truth checking efforts and ditch company variety applications — “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 girls within the office manifesto Lean In, was identified for her as soon as shut partnership with Zuckerberg on the high of Fb. That Zuckerberg would blame his former high lieutenant for fostering “inclusivity” at his firm, raised eyebrows even amongst longtime observers of the corporate.
“She at all times 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 below the (Trump) bus.” Journalist and longtime tech pundit Kara Swisher likewise famous that “people I talked to tonight from the Mark/Sheryl Fb period are shocked however not shocked 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 wherein Zuckerberg mentioned that Sandberg had raised him “like a dad or mum.” I joked that the remark hadn’t aged effectively.
However on Friday, Zuckerberg determined to let me (and I suppose everybody else) know that he and Sandberg are nonetheless cool, in spite of everything. “Sheryl did superb work at Meta and can eternally be a legend within the trade,” he wrote in a reply to my publish. “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 exhausting emotions on her aspect, both. “Thanks, @zuck. I’ll at all times be thankful for the numerous years we spent constructing a terrific enterprise collectively – and to your friendship that received me by means of among the hardest instances of my life and continues to this present 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 vitality” he lately advised 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 'convey your complete self to work' got here from, and now there's a complete bogus narrative saying I blamed Sheryl for a bunch of stuff that I by no means did and by no means will," he mentioned. (Bringing your "complete 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 variety amongst its workers. "Being your genuine self is the inspiration 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 suppose that settles it. Nothing to see right here, people. Mark and Sheryl are undoubtedly nonetheless mates. 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 publish was up to date to mirror an extra remark from Zuckerberg.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-and-sheryl-sandberg-want-you-to-know-theyre-still-friends-and-definitely-not-mad-at-each-other-222145203.html?src=rss