The “intolerant political monoculture” at Facebook has a grip on even the highest ranking executives.
Facebook convened a meeting Friday, October 5, a to discuss the conservative views of Vice President of Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan. The VP had caused Facebook employees to panic due to his show of support of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate confirmation hearings. At the Facebook meeting, both CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CFO Sheryl Sandberg “expressed frustration that Kaplan had inserted the company into the political moment,” according to NBC.
Sources told NBC that Kaplan apologized at the meeting, saying it was “a mistake for him to have attended the hearing without consulting other executives.” However, Kaplan did not back down from his support of Kavanaugh, as was made apparent by Politico. The Facebook executive threw Kavanaugh and his employees a celebration on Saturday night, after Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court.
Sandberg and Zuckerberg also “unequivocally condemned sexual assault and said that Facebook should be a place where diverse points of view are tolerated and supported.” Other members of the liberal media/political scene have called for Kaplan’s firing.
Hillary Clinton’s political advisor Adam Parkhomenko wrote on Twitter, “Clearly the problems at Facebook run deep. NY Times article on head of Facebook DC was damning. Joel Kaplan needs to be fired immediately. Email Facebook and demand they fire Joel Kaplan press@fb.com.”
In leaked statements to the New York Times on Thursday, October 4, Facebook employees called Kaplan’s actions a “slap in the face to his fellow employees” and said Kaplan “violated our policies.” Previously, Facebook engineer Brian Amerige wrote in August that Facebook employees were “quick to attack -- often in mobs -- anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.”
