On Thursday, The New York Times published a long story about the rise to power of Stephen Miller, a longtime Donald Trump supporter known for his tough views on immigration. Normally, a story like this wouldn’t receive much attention in the specialized press. But the article began with an anecdote about Mark Zuckerberg that immediately raised eyebrows.
The story details a recent meeting Miller had with Zuckerberg when the Meta CEO traveled to Mar-a-Lago last year. Accordingly The timesZuckerberg – who would soon abandon Metas Prior Fact checking Efforts and digging Corporate diversity Programs – “held its former chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, responsible for an inclusion initiative at Facebook that encouraged employee self-expression in the workplace.”
That statement sparked a new round of speculation (and some outrage) in tech circles. Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 and gained fame for authoring her “Women in the Workplace” manifesto Lean into itShe was known for her once close partnership with Zuckerberg at the helm of Facebook. That Zuckerberg would blame his former top lieutenant for promoting “inclusivity” at his company raised eyebrows even among long-time observers of the company.
“She always knew who Mark Zuckerberg was and covered for him.” New York Times observed reporter Sheera Frankel, co-author of a book about Facebook’s dominance on Bluesky. “The question is whether she will continue to do that if he so blatantly throws her under the (Trump) bus.” Also journalist and long-time tech expert Kara Swisher noted that “the people I spoke to tonight from the Mark/Sheryl Facebook era are shocked but not surprised that he blames her.”
I also weighed myself Threads accountSharing a link to a Business Insider Story from February, which cited an interview in which Zuckerberg said Sandberg raised him “like a parent.” I joked that the comment had not aged well.
But on Friday, Zuckerberg decided to let me (and probably everyone else) know that he and Sandberg are still cool. “Sheryl did a great job at Meta and will forever be a legend in the industry,” he wrote an answer to my post. “She built one of the greatest companies of all time and taught me a lot of what I know.”
A few minutes later Sandberg jumped in to helpfully let me know that there are no hard feelings on her side either. “Thanks, @zuck. I will always be grateful for the many years we spent building a great company together – and for your friendship, which helped me through some of the most difficult times in my life and continues to this day.”
Zuckerberg responded with one single heart emoji.
I asked Zuckerberg if he felt Sandberg was too focused on DEI initiatives at Meta, or if she had taken away the “masculine energy” he had recently Joe Rogan said Companies should embody. In particular, he did not deny this The times Coverage of his comments about Sandberg, even though he claimed they were being misinterpreted.
“I answered a question about where the phrase ‘bring your whole self to work’ comes from, and now there’s a whole false narrative that says I blamed Sheryl for a lot of things that I never did and did never will,” he said said. (Bringing your “whole self” to work is a slogan popularized by Sandberg Lean into it. Similar language often appeared Meta’s career page when the company highlighted the diversity of its employees. “Being your authentic self is the foundation of who we are as a company,” Meta wrote on a website since then deleted page on its corporate website where it published its internal diversity reports.)
I think that settles the matter. Nothing to see here, folks. Mark and Sheryl are definitely still friends. They may no longer work at the same company, but they can still come together to achieve potential PR crisis. What could be more inspiring than that?
Update, January 17, 2025, 4:00 p.m. PT: This post has been updated to reflect additional comment from Zuckerberg.
