According to a claim from the Wall Street Journal, Sheryl Sandberg, the Meta executive, reportedly persuaded the Daily Mail to suppress unpleasant pieces about her then-boyfriend Bobby Kotick, the Activision Blizzard CEO.
According to the Journal, she urged the Mail’s digital version not to publish stories showing that Kotick’s ex-girlfriend had secured a temporary restraining order against him in 2014. Sandberg, whom Kotick dated for three years until 2019, reportedly informed the Mail in 2016 that if the item was published, it would jeopardize the outlet’s relationship with Facebook. Sandberg allegedly contacted the Daily Mail in 2016 and 2019 to stop the pieces from being published, but the stories were never published.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Sandberg enlisted the help of Meta and Activision staff, as well as outside experts, to kill the story.According to the Journal, Facebook is looking into whether Sandberg broke any internal regulations, although a spokeswoman for the company rejected the accusations. “Sheryl Sandberg never put the MailOnline’s financial relationship with Facebook in jeopardy in order to sway an editorial judgement.” “This article tries to draw linkages that don’t exist,” a Meta spokesman, Mao-Lin Shen, stated.
According to the Journal, some Facebook officials feel Sandberg’s attempt to suppress a news piece may have been perceived as a threat because of her influential position at the firm. Sandberg’s advisers were concerned that news of a restraining order against Kotick might tarnish the Meta executive’s reputation.
Sandberg has made a name for herself as a proponent of women in the workplace, publishing the book Lean In in 2013, which urges women to “sit at the table” and seek difficulties in order to succeed in their professions.
In recent months, Kotick has been chastised for being aware of “several incidences of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and gender discrimination inside Activision Blizzard.” Multiple sexual harassment complaints have been filed against the corporation, and it was recently sued by the state of California for its workplace culture, which a state agency described as “a breeding environment for harassment and discrimination against women.” A group of shareholders accused Kotick of failing to “guarantee that the executives and managers involved were removed, or to acknowledge and address the company’s hostile workplace’s systemic character.”
