Joel Kaplan, Facebook’s vice president of public policy, sent the social media giant into a tizzy after he supported his friend Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.
He apologized for the stir, but did not apologize for supporting his friend. In fact, Kaplan threw a party to celebrate the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
From Politico:
FACEBOOK’S JOEL KAPLAN and his wife LAURA COX KAPLAN hosted a Kavanaugh celebration at their house last night for people who had worked on his nomination. Brett and Ashley Kavanaugh stopped by the gathering of about 25 people that was organized by Laura, Ginger Loper and several other Kavanaugh female supporters.
I wrote about Kaplan’s obviously treasonous moves in my post about the Google exec who went ballistic on the GOP over Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
I still cannot believe his appearance upset the Facebook snowflakes. The fragile employees moaned and complained so much that CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to remind them that Kaplan didn’t break any rules. On the other hand, COO Sheryl Sandberg said “it was a mistake for him to attend given his role in the company.” From The Wall Street Journal:
In her post, Ms. Sandberg wrote: “I’ve talked to Joel about why I think it was a mistake for him to attend given his role in the company,” according to a copy of the post reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “We support people’s right to do what they want in their personal time but this was by no means a straightforward case.”
Kaplan apologized to his colleagues, according to The New York Times:
“I want to apologize,” the Facebook executive wrote last Friday in a note to staff. “I recognize this moment is a deeply painful one — internally and externally.”
However, he didn’t apologize for attending. He said: “I believe in standing by your friends, especially when times are tough for them.”
The fire within the belly of the beast grew to the point that the company had to hold a freaking townhall. All because an employee went to the hearing to support a long time friend on personal time, not company time. From CNN:
In a Facebook town hall organized to address staffers’ concerns about Kaplan’s attendance, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his No. 2, Sheryl Sandberg, “expressed frustration that Joel inserted the company into a political moment by supporting his friend — especially given his role at the company,” according to one of the people familiar with the meeting.The other person, who watched the event, which was streamed for employees, told CNN that “people were emotional” and that Kaplan “acknowledged he erred by not telling Mark and Sheryl.”One source stressed that Kaplan did not say it was a mistake to attend the hearing, but instead talked about his values of loyalty and friendship. Zuckerberg and Sandberg said at the town hall that it was important for Facebook to be “a place where diverse points of view are not only tolerated but supported.”
Some employees think Facebook has bigger problems than Kaplan attending Kavanaugh’s hearings. One employee had to apologize for HIS post and delete it. From WSJ:
Other Facebook officials joined the internal discussion, including longtime executive Andrew Bosworth. Among other things, Mr. Bosworth argued that Facebook employees should spend more time focusing on issues within their control rather than problems beyond their scope like the Supreme Court nomination process. Some other employees made similar arguments and said Facebook staff should focus more on issues like its security breach, disclosed last week.Mr. Bosworth also argued that Facebook was an apolitical company and the workplace may not be a good fit for employees who need to drive political change through work, according to people who saw his posts. He also linked to mental-health resources for employees who needed them.His post triggered an angry response from some employees, and Mr. Bosworth deleted the internal message. He then apologized for his remarks internally.“I had hoped it would then help people heal and allow our employees to focus on their work without ongoing anxiety,” he wrote. “I was wrong and my post was wrong.”
This behavior verifies what Facebook engineer Brian Amerige wrote in August. He penned a two-page memo titled “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity,” which claims that employees “are quick to attack—often in mobs—anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.”
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