Enraged Mark Zuckerberg was so outraged by Facebook information leaked to the media that he demanded “please step back” from anyone responsible for it.
The Facebook co-founder and owner’s anger surfaced again in a confidential email he sent in 2010, which has since been viewed 3 million times, after one of his employees leaked information to the media.
The email to Facebook employees, released over the weekend by a Twitter account known as Internal Tech Emails, called the leak of an internal meeting about the social network’s plans a “treason.”
Zuckerberg, who was 25 at the time, was angered by a TechCrunch story that said the company was secretly building the software for a cell phone and was working with a third party to build the hardware, which he said was inaccurate .
Zuckerberg’s 2010 email dated September 22 had “Please withdraw” as the subject and began with the line “Confidential – Do Not Share.”
Mark Zuckerberg was angered by a TechCrunch story that said the company was secretly building the software for a cell phone and was working with a third party to build the hardware, which the company said was inaccurate
Zuckerberg’s 2010 email dated September 22 had “Please withdraw” as the subject and began with the line “Confidential – Do Not Share.”
Zuckerberg wrote, “Many of you saw the TechCrunch story over the weekend claiming we’re building a cell phone. We don’t make phones, and I talked at length in the Q&A about what we actually do – designing ways to make all phones and apps more social.
“It was an act of treason,” she continued. “Therefore, I urge whoever leaked this to resign immediately.”
Zuckerberg added, “If you think it’s ever appropriate to disclose internal information, you should leave.”
“If you don’t quit, we’ll almost certainly find out who you are anyway.”
Facebook, now renamed Meta, has laid off thousands of employees as part of what Zuckerberg has called the company’s “Year of Efficiency.”
Numerous tech giants have shed thousands of jobs in recent months after being overstaffed by pandemic-related hiring frenzy.
In an email to employees earlier this month, Zuckerberg, 38, said Meta would cut 10,000 jobs over the next few months, leaving 5,000 other positions unfilled.
Zuckerberg brooded over his employees leaking information to the press in the 2010 email, writing, “It’s frustrating and destructive that anyone here thinks it is.” [sic] It was okay to say this to someone outside of the company.
“The fact that the story was inaccurate doesn’t make it any better.”
Zuckerberg, who was 25 at the time, wrote in the email, “If you feel it’s ever appropriate to disclose inside information, you should leave.”
Former journalist Michael Arrington wrote the article referenced in the email.
Arrington, co-founder of TechCrunch, has since served as head of Arrington Capital, a Web3-centric venture capital firm.
Zuckerberg’s 2010 email continued, “I’ve had to personally dedicate a lot of time over the last few days … to undo the damage from this mess.
“Even now we are in a precarious position with wireless companies who should be our partners because they now see us as competitors.”
Pledged to work to prevent future leaks to the press, Zuckerberg said, “We are a company that encourages openness and transparency, both globally and here internally at Facebook.
“But the price of an open culture is that we must protect all of the confidential information that we share internally
“If we don’t do that, we’re kidding everyone who works their ass off to change the world.”
In 2016, a former Facebook employee, Antonio Garcia Martinez, wrote a book that compared the company to a cult and said Zuckerberg’s leadership style was comparable to that of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un.
In Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley, Martinez also wrote that Facebook workers were told how to dress and had to avoid wearing skirts that were too short lest they “distract” others. .
Last week, Meta announced that it had launched a paid verification service similar to Twitter Blue for Instagram and Facebook in the United States.